It’s 2016, Star Wars fans, and we’re back to bring you the past week’s news and spoilers from around the web. There’s now 346 days until Rogue One. Let’s keep this one short and sweet and get right into it.
The events at the end of The Force Awakens leave the galaxy far far away in new uncharted state of affairs. Before the start of The Force Awakens the Galaxy was in a holding pattern. The remnants of the Empire had retreated to the Outer Rim Territories and uncharted areas and reorganized into the First Order. The Republic had a non-aggression treaty with the Empire/First Order that allowed them to rebuild the damage caused by the Empire and the war between the Rebellion and Empire.
Happy Holidays, Star Wars fans! It’s now time for our 20th weekly recap, and we’re 10 days past the release of The Force Awakens, and now a little less than a year from the release of Rogue One. Have you made your New Year’s resolution yet? We’re here to bring you the latest in Star Wars news from the galactic core to all the way in the outer rim. Let’s get started…
Hello Star Wars fans! Season’s greetings from Spoiled Blue Milk! Well, The Force Awakens has been out for a couple days now, and we’ve both seen it at least three times. You got @davestrrr review last week and now it is time for mine.
Hello Star Wars fans! HOLY COW THERE IS A NEW STAR WARS IN THEATERS NOW!!!! Oh and its pretty damn good. Believe it or not there is also some news on other fronts too. We’re here to bring you your weekly recap. Lets dive right into that.
Our twitter Friend @endless_Skye recently live tweeted re-watching the Saga. She decided to go Machete order and I thought it was funny and should share it with you today, on the premiere of the new installment The Force Awakens.
more “What happens when you re-watch the saga: A live tweet version”
This week every question is answered….about The Force Awakens, then comes a ton of questions on Rogue one and Episode 8. But for now lets get you up to date on the latest rumor, leaks and news. Some people in the press will get to see it today, other people will have to wait until Wednesday at 7pm. Can you believe it’s almost here? Given how close we are, we have lots of major SPOILERS, so be warned. Let’s get into it…
1. People magazine has new details on Snoke found via MSW: He’s described as:
This character is much better executed as a CGI character. That’s just a practical reality when he’s 7-foot-something tall; he’s very, very thin.
They built costumes for Serkis to wear on set.
“[Snoke] is strangely vulnerable at the same time as being quite powerful,”
davestrrr: Very interesting. That’s two “very”s up there before thin. This guy is going to be shockingly thin. Like he might break if he falls over. This might be the “vulnerability” that Serkis was talking about?
mazlow01: This so cool to me, honestly I think he is the most anticipated character now. Disney and Lucasfilm were smart to hide him.
2. Snokegate! The internet has been buzzing back and forth about Snoke.
2.1 Collider claims a piece of fan art of Plaguies is Snoke. To be fair, they sent this picture to their “sources” and they said that was the look.
davestrrr: This is clearly fan art of Plagueis, and the guys at collider agree with this. So at this point, are we done? Nope. They think this is actually how Snoke looks. Then we didn’t need this magazine to ask them. Why could they just ask their sources if Snoke looks like all the Plagueis fan art? I don’t buy the whole Disney asked them to take it down. It was up for days after. This just smells like some attempt to get more views and more publicity.
mazlow01: Yeah no. They say they have sources that say Snoke looks similar to this and then claimed Disney told them to remove it. 5 days later it was still there, though now gone… clicks baby clicks. Also one of them has been on Plaguies=Snoke train from day one and the other has slowly joined. They were also claiming to have confirmed Rey’s staff was Plaguies’. I don’t buy it at all.
2.2 The next day a user on NeoGaf gave us this image of Snoke from “The Art of The Force Awakens”
davestrrr: This is the first “real” image that feels real. I don’t know if this is the final design, but this is the first thing we’ve seen that looks like actual concept art. These two versions look different, one younger with more recent injuries, and other older and more wrinkly, with older wounds. We did have the quote from Serkis earlier that they kept working on the design up until post-production.
mazlow01: Now this I believe will be close to the final design. Not exactly it, but close. Also both the collider boys said this was bogus and or fake.. the same user also released the next pics so he track record is already better than theirs.
2.3 The Collider guys came back and said that this NeoGaf image wasn’t real. It isn’t Snoke, they claim. We have this response from John Campea saying that the NeoGaf pic was “bogus”:
and then Kristian Harloff said that this image just “isn’t Snoke”.
@13jdlevesque that is not Snoke
— KristianHarloff (@KristianHarloff) December 12, 2015
davestrrr: I don’t know how John Campea can say that he has “never been firm”. He has frequently said that he is 100% of the view that Snoke = Plagueis, and we have reported on this before. In a recent interview with Justin Bolger, he has said “very firmly”, and other times he has said “100%”. Isn’t this “firm”? As a matter of fact, and this is kind of hilarious, in the Justin Bolger interview, John Campea says, and I quote (at 9:28) “I do believe, very firmly, that Snoke is Plagueis. I believe that whole-heartedly”. And now he says he has never been firm? Is this guy for real? Does he have no memory of what he says from one show to the next?
mazlow01: Once these guys are proven completely wrong will they hang there heads and go away? I doubt it. Instead they pretend they said they hoped it was Snoke but were never positive. This is a pathetic use of controversy to get hits up on their show.
3. Next we have a huge dump of images from the Visual Dictionary leaked, along with this image of the Kanjuklub Gang (hat tip to ugnaught) and this of Kylo Ren (hat tip to Dat_Miracle) Along with the following revelations (SPOILERS!)
davestrrr: Tremendous news here. The thing about Lor San Tekka being part of the “Church of the Force” is very interesting. Gives some point of reference to our earlier article on him. Could this connection provide him with knowledge of where Luke is? Great list of news here.
mazlow01: We had a good idea of the Gang based on the Lego set released that had them and this just rocks I really like the look and can’t wait to the actors (from The Raid) show off. The rest of this info! Han being a “family man” come on people he was married and after the loss of his kid he and leia didn’t survive like we suggested. And finally Kylo Ren confirms he kills Luke’s students, and he’s related to Luke. AWESOME!
4. John and Daisy training for The Force Awakens
davestrrr: Great shots there. Some good acrobatics too. Will there be other fights that are not trained here? Time will tell, but it looks like they are doing some good work. Interestingly, JJ has also stated that they are going back to an old school version of lightsaber fighting and that it won’t be as intense as the PT, more like the OT. More dialogue and emotional conflict than choreography.
mazlow01: Very cool. They are going to be freaking great, honestly this might hype me more than any of the trailers. Is that weird?
5. We have a great piece from 60 minutes last night on the music of TFA, along with the score of the opening scene!
davestrrr: Very exciting. John Williams is so freaking brilliant. The man is 83 years old and still has the mind of a young man. Pure genius. I can’t say enough about this great man, and all I can say is I hope he stays with us for another 10 years plus.
mazlow01: I only hope JW is around for the rest of this trilogy. This sounds closer to the PT than OT to me also.. part of his evolving style.
6. There is a compiled gif of the Kylo/Finn lightsaber battle, along with a new spin move from Kylo! Props to temtam for the post.
davestrrr: Sweet moves! I know the fights will be more old school, but skill like Kylo’s spin move is much appreciated and looks fantastic.
mazlow01: Dude Kylo is a badass! I can’t wait for Rey vs Kylo.
7. There were so many “5 days” TV spots. Here is a link to a compilation of them all!
davestrrr: Nothing terribly new here, and we’re already at 3 days (or 4 depending on when you are counting to), so this is a bit old at the rate news is coming. Have you felt it?
mazlow01: MOAR!
Return of the Jedi is the first Star Wars movie I ever saw in the theater though if we’re honest I don’t remember the event. I was five years old and according to my parents immediately hooked. That birthday and Christmas I racked up on Star Wars toys. I had lightsabers with holes at the top to make the noise, an Ewok village and ALL of the Ewoks, every Main character and stormies, X-wings, TIE fighters, speeder bikes, you name it I had it*. My parents weren’t rich or willing to spoil me but I was the only grandson and one of two Grand kids at the time and my grandparents were more than willing to spoil me. Thanks Papa and Grandma! To say that Return of the Jedi started me on the Path of Geek is one percent correct. All that said lets jump into the final review before The Force Awakens.
What I Liked
The first shot mimics ANH opening and that is just a great sign. Vader really sets the tone when he uses the line “The emperor is not as forgiving as I am”. I really liked just about everything that happens at Jabba’s palace. Real Jabba over CGI Jabba any day of the week too, the CGI Jabba from the prequels and ANH:SE just aren’t the same character to me. Jabba is no fool and he proves it when he prevents Leia from rescuing Han and once Luke shows up by trying to dispatch him quickly. Leia shows us once again she’s a bad ass by taking down Jabba single-handedly. This highlights the failure of Padme’s arc in the prequels to me. Luke is obviously more powerful and confident and adds to his total as a mass murderer.
The Emperor is still so cool, I want to join the darkside as soon as he starts to speak. Yoda dying is actually really sad and yet he still jokes! Once back with everyone learning of the Rebels plans, Han’s incredulous look when Leia’s says “who’d they get to pull that off” is just… Han. As is the Han’s line later when they arrive at Endor “Fly Casual” I enjoyed the speeder bike chase and the introduction to both Leia and the rest of the group to the Ewoks. I know Ewoks aren’t the most popular of creatures but I like them. People act like 3-4 foot bears aren’t terrifying… really? Intelligent 3 -4 ft bears are absolutely terrifying to me. Anyway. Luke using C3PO and C3PO’s reaction are great. As is Han’s orders to C3PO about getting there stuff and the other 5 questions/commands he had.
Everything after Luke meets up with Vader is pure gold. The final battle is raging across three fields and the one with least amount of impact on the outcome for the Rebellion is one we care about the most. Luke vs Vader and the Emperor. Luke could lose that battle and still the rebellion could win if he wins the rebellion could still lose. The battle between these three is emotional with Luke trying to turn his Father and the Emperor trying to turn Luke. The Emperor is good but he blows it in his overconfidence. He unwittingly prevent Luke from truly going dark with his comments. Luke is willing to die to save his friends Anakin was willing to kill, the Emperor thought they were of the same cloth. Vader looking to his son and then teh emperor you can feel his conflict. Knowing what we know about the prequels you can make a guess of what is going through his head. Padme died, the Emperor couldn’t help me save her. If I let him kill Luke then everything I’ve done has been for nothing. Boom dead Emperor. I could go into the other battles but they don’t have the impact of this one. They are visually great and Han has a great moment with Leia after the Death Star 2.0 is destroyed. Act three is as good as ESB in my mind, no need to wax poetic.
What doesn’t work for me
ROTJ works on just about every level so there is very little to dislike. The special edition additions of the CGI band in Jabba’s place are kinda terrible as is the new song. I also can’t stand the new mouth on the Sarlacc. The only two other things I’d change about the first act are Boba goes down like lil punk and Yoda kinda should have given Luke a better warning about the Emperor. As far as the second and final acts I only have two issues. One is the scene after Luke leaves to face Vader. Leia and Han have what is at best an awkward scene, not quite Anakin and Padme in AotC but not great. The second would be the traps the Ewoks had set up for the Imperials in the woods. Seriously that would require tons of planning and work and they just didn’t have the time.
What ifs!
I mean in the orginal first draft of ANH we have an Ewok/rebels team up that was wookiees instead. How cool would that have been? I still like my Ewoks but Wookiees man. We could have had Wookiees!
Final Thoughts
RotJ is and always will be a great way to end Anakin’s story. If it weren’t for nostalgia and the way ANH changed the game RotJ would probably most people’s number 2. After my re-watch I have come to new conclusions on how I rank these films. ESB, RotJ, TPM(you read that right), ANH, RotS and AotC. This has also heightened my excitement for next Thursday first viewing of The Force Awakens to levels I’ve not felt for any movie since TPM. I will probably watch the OT Thursday then go right into TFA after seeing RotJ twice in a as many weeks. Expect my review of TFA to be bonkers.
Leia, princess, fighter, rebel, leader, Senator and we learned all that in the first 15 minutes of A New Hope. Its been over 30 years since we have seen her and quite a bit in her life has changed. However its fair to assume that not much has changed about Leia’s overall personality, a little older and wiser maybe but just as take charge and confident.
What do we know?
Leia was a leader in the Rebellion and she is now a General for the Resistance . She leads the Resistance which we believe is a separate organization from the Republic. This would mean she is no longer a political leader but a military one so her change from the begining of ANH(Senator) to the RotJ(Fighting on the ground) is complete.
After the events of RotJ Leia had a choice, study with Luke to become a Jedi or continue her work with the Republic . She decided she’d do the most good with Republic and now with the Resistance.
“It was a great question, and one that we talked about quite a bit, even with Carrie [Fisher]: If there was another, why did she not take advantage of this natural Force strength that this character had? And one of the answers was that it was simply a choice that she made, that her decision to run the Rebellion — ultimately, this Resistance — and consider herself a general, as opposed to a Jedi, it was simply a choice she took. Not that there was any regret that she could have and didn’t, but clearly we’ve seen, and we do again, she’s still Force-strong, and it’s something that is an intrinsic piece of her character.”JJ Abrams (Source)
So she is Force sensitive however she is not a Jedi and limited skills with the Force.
What we suspect
As the Leader of the Resistance she is tasked with stopping the First Order’s rise to power in the Galaxy. She is responsible for sending Poe to Jakku which starts all of our cast on its journey. After the Attack on Maz’s castle Leia leads the Resistance to Takodana to save the rest of the heroes and brings Han Chewie and Finn to the Resistance base. She is also responsible for the Resistance’s secret weapon which they use during the final battle of the movie.
Based on where we meet Han and the fact that Han goes to Maz instead of Leia we can assume that they no longer have the relationship they had at the end of RotJ. Speculation has named Kylo Ren Han and Leia’s son and possibly Rey as their daughter, making Leia a mother of at least one child. Considering where meet Rey and Kylo’s allegiance one would assume the loss of their child(ren) caused their estrangement. However they quickly put aside whatever the negative past is to fight once again against the darkside and save Rey.
By the end of TFA Leia will have won a battle against The First Order and most likely lost Han forever. She will have found a new family member in Rey, whether it be a daughter, niece or just in the Force is yet to be determined.
10 days. Just 10 days until we be in a theater to watch The Force Awakens! Of course the promo machine has kicked into high gear and every cast and crew member that can be interviewed is being interviewed. So we sorted through the new to give you our readers the spoilerly news you deserve!
1) Promo clip “Destiny” with a couple of new shots
mazlow01: So most of this is stuff we have seen however the new shots of Rey and Leia tell me something. Both are from the end of the movie. This most definitely from Rey and Leia’s goodbye before she heads to meet Luke.
davestrrr: Great clip! Those two shots at the end of Leia and Rey are pretty new. Not one of Carrie’s best smiles, but it’ll do. Love the new Rey pic! This pic reminds me of the end of TPM when Anakin get’s cleaned up and is smiling about venturing into his new life as a Jedi. Could this be the end of TFA?
2) New International TV spot with new footage
mazlow01: This mainly just new shots of aerial battles but holy cow the aerial battles look so much better than any previous ones! Also there does appear to be a brief shot of the interior of a ship with Kylo that is similar to a previous shot where he ignites his lightsaber.
davestrrr: Nice. The Rey piece was especially good with a couple of new shots here and there. I love the shot when she takes off her mask. Man, it feels like we are seeing too much of the movie!! The Spanish one is really trying to milk the Oscar Isaac thing.
3) People clarifies Snoke’s height among other interviews
mazlow01: As we thought Snoke is tall but not 25ft tall. Apparently he’s 7ft “something” which I think means closer to 8″ than not. He’s also really thin which is another McQuarrie concept call back to the orginal design of the emperor. Unfortunately this has once again brought back the Plaguies conspiracies. Listen people JJ learned his lesson with Khan. Get over it Plaguies is dead.
davestrrr: Phew! I think this is what we concluded, but still glad he isn’t King Kong height and can actually fit inside a door etc. That will make for better story telling I think.
4) Toys reveal minor characters
mazlow01: More McQuarrie concepts! Cool but nothing great.
davestrrr: I like the Wolfman! Very reminiscent of the Cantina scene.
5) Twitter Awakens Confirms Rey vs Kylo Ren!
mazlow01: Any one that has followed the spoilers knew this but finally confirmation! This did piss off people but lets be honest what doesn’t these days. Also Daisy and Oscar singing a duet was great! They both can really sing!
davestrrr: The fight is what I’m waiting for! We reported a leak last week on this, but it is good to have confirmation. This is the fight that everyone will be talking about! This will be the point that we may learn the truth about Rey’s backstory.
6) There were a TON of new interviews with the cast and crew… too many to link.
mazlow01: I was going to link the interviews here but honestly none of them REALLY gave us new info and I would have to put a link on every letter of the title. The one thing I did take is the cast has great chemistry, they’ve seen the movie and liked it and John and Daisy’s personalities are just fantastic.
davestrrr: So many interviews that I can’t keep up! The Aol stuff was pretty length and good. Except the guy kept talking about his “nerd tears”. Looks like everyone is doing the rounds and doing lots of interviews, but nobody is leaking too much anymore.
mazlow01: Thank you KK! Honestly the more diversity we can get in Star Wars the better for it quality and longevity.
davestrrr: Yeah, I think this is good. I think movies in general need more strong female characters. From what I can tell, Rey is shaping up to be a very strong AND beautiful female character that everyone can look up to.
8) Episode 8 casting and location rumors
mazlow01: The key to me was the travel to Spain. For whatever reason that makes me think of Naboo. I hope that is where we going!
davestrrr: Naboo seems doubtful since that was Italy. Who knows. What about something in the country-side? Beaches? Hills? What about this pic:
When Revenge of the Sith first came out I was admittedly less excited than I had been for the two previous Prequels. I found myself focusing on the negative aspects of the previous movies instead of the many positives. Basically I was slowly becoming a prequel hater. After the first showing Revenge became my favorite prequel far and away, I thought it was the closest to old school Star Wars and was so freaking happy about it. However now it trades places with TPM as to which is my favorite of the prequels depending on the day. In some way the faults of AotC hurt the potential of RotS and it has it own faults but is still a great movie.
What works
Lets start with a technical and story aspects that work, I’m going to focus on characters and the lightsaber battles after. The opening battle’s effects are just spectacular. I loved every visual they gave me. Once Obi-Wan and Anakin are on the ship there is a great mirror scene where Destroyers roll up on them just like in TPM, it just makes me smile. The comedy R2 adds by being a badass works in RotS in ways earlier comedy attempts did not, maybe because its R2? Who knows but it works. Also the interaction between Anakin and Obi-wan seems much more familiar than it did on AotC. When the Jedi spurn Anakin and then ask him to spy on Palpatine… well it was just another nail in their coffin. The effects on Utapau are also really well done and hold up great. Once Anakin has finally realized the Chancellor is a Sith lord, I absolutely loved how the Jedi seal their fate by excluding Anakin in the arrest. Mace is a total badass in his fight with Sidious but based on Mace’s actions I can believe Anakin would save the Sidious. I find Anakin’s fall completely believable while I know others don’t. The Jedi have consistently undervalued and mishandled Anakin while Sidious has played him perfectly. Of course Anakin would believe him and think the dark side could save his wife. Yoda’s answer was let go of attachment, Mace straight up said I don’t really trust you. Yoda and Obi-wan’s assault on the Jedi Temple was a great example of what teh Jedi SHOULD have been to me. Also Yoda is a badass again. Finally the funeral of Padme when she has the Juniper necklace in her hands… the feels man, right in the feels.
Lets talk about Sidious/Palpatine, holy cow was this a great character and performance by Ian McDiarmid. This is his movie more than any other charcter. Honestly he just chews up every scene and piece of dialog he has. When Obi-wan takes out the two guards during the battle with Dooku and Palpatine gives that lil “Yes!”, it is funny and believable. And after Anakin has Dooku in his grasp, Palpatine is convincing and just works Anakin so well. Honestly I would do what he told me too. I did like how Palpatine seemed nervous about the landing and had a certain amount of contempt for Grevious. The legend of Darth Plaguies is another example of Palpatine being so damn awesome. That scene places one more domino in the final downfall of the Jedi and Anakin. The line “Not from the Jedi”… damn! It is no wonder that Anakin joins him, why wouldn’t he?
Obi-wan once again is great. Pretty much any scene he is in is better because of it. Ewan seems to really be enjoying himself too(Sith lords are our specialty) . Anakin is much better written than in AotC and his interaction with Padme is believable and not creepy like before. I found Anakin’s rage more believable this time also. You tell he has continually been held back and viewed unfavorably and has become frustrated and resentful.
Lighsaber battles. Man o man is this one full of them. Obi-wan and Anakin vs Dooku. Obi-wan vs Grevious, Windu vs Sidious, Anakin Vs Obi-wan, Yoda vs Sidious. And they are all freaking awesome! I will say this the first two were better on the written page than in the movie. The background given about fighting style and subtle uses of the force in O+A vs D made it a much better fight. And Mace’s pep talk to Obi-wan before he leaves to find and destroy Grevious would have been great to see on screen. That said both fights were still really well done. Windu vs Sidious was great on screen. And the finale of Sidious yelling Unlimited power was spine chilling. Now of the two big battles I liked the Yoda vs Sidious better. Sacrilegious I know. Anakin vs Obi-wan was fast paced and just great fight choreography but I wanted to see Anakin getting the better of Obi-wan more. It seemed much more even of fight than my personal head cannon had always pictured it. What I love about the Yoda vs Sidious fight was Sidious’s reaction to everything. When Yoda force pushes him across the room then prevents him from leaving… He laughs! Once the fight is in the Senate chambers he is maniacal in his laughter and just seems to be enjoying the wanton destruction he causes. He even seem annoyed when Yoda fights back. Its is just awesome. Plus the dialog during the fight between the two is very OT style.
What didn’t work
I hate the opening crawl on this movie. I can’t explain what exactly it is maybe its the “War!: start or Heroes on both sides line but it just isn’t Star Warsey to me. The dialog and opening space battle why beautiful is choppy and slow. It could be more dynamic on the action front. I really did not like Padme’s portrayal in RotS. She seems like more of an Anakin prop than anything else and I absolutely hate that. This character carried the first movie, it was hers and in the final movie she merely there to push Anakin into uncomfortable situations.
I also didn’t like how Mace just up and decided Sidious had to die. The Chancellor being killed by a Jedi is good for no one. It makes no sense at all for him to do so. Anakin’s fall to the darkside is great however having him kill younglings right away doesn’t match up and leaves no “good in him” for Obi-wan to think there may be some (RotJ cannon). Anakin should have just let the troopers in and maybe handled any full Jedi there. Padme getting injured by Anakin should have been accidental similar to how they show at the end when Vader destroys everything around him. Padme should have been caught up by his rage focused on Obi-wan not the focus of it herself. Yoda didn’t lose his fight with Sidious he just gave up. Cheap. Having Padme die at the end also ruined RotJ cannon. They could have said she’d never recover fully and might live a couple more years. Have it her as part of the decision to separate the twins to hide them from their father. Let her have some agency in their lives. My final complaint is the complete lack of Jar-Jar. For gods sake he had a quarter of the dialog in TPM and in RotS he has all of one line and two scenes. I don’t care if you hate him its a disservice to the character that was important to the first movie.
Final Thoughts
No matter the faults I see in RotS, half of which are really just my own head cannon really, its still a great movie. I do like that the prequels are billed as the Story of Anakin but are really the stories of those who shaped him. The first is Padme’s story the second is Obi-wan’s mixed with Padme and Anakin’s courtship and the third is Palpatine’s. While none of these is really about him they all let us know how he became Darth Vader and I think the real fault people have with the movies is they wanted it to be 3 Anakin Skywalker movies and George told us the story we wanted in a way that we weren’t expecting.
Hey there Star Wars fans! We’re here to bring you your weekly assortment of Star Wars spoilery goodness. This week is no exception. We’re now 19 days from The Force Awakens, and new pieces of info are coming in. Almost as if it is carefully timed to keep us in a constant state of anticipation for this film…Let’s get into it!
I am going to state this from the beginning; this is my least favorite Star Wars movie but when it first came out it was my second or third favorite. As time passed from its initial release its faults became more apparent and its shiny parts became duller to the point that I no longer saw them. I will say that now I can view everything that it truly is a good movie with a few bad spots. Lets just say Star Wars movies are like pizza there isn’t a bad one and I have had pizza that was worse than AotC could ever be viewed.
What didn’t work
Dialog: this is the root of every problem in AotC. Related would be the development of Anakin and Padme’s relationship however I believe with proper dialog I think this would not have been bad. Much of the dialog is telling us things that we should be able to see instead. Anakin telling us how great Obi-Wan is as a master would have been better shown. Perhaps open the movie with them working together well. The chase Obi-wan and Anakin participate in could have done a better job of them cooperating and Obi-Wan being a mentor with the better dialog and interaction. Instead Obi-wan acts like Anakin is a child that needs minding and Anakin acts as though he HAS to just do things or his abilities aren’t recognized. The development of Anakin and Padme’s relationship uneven while parts are great they veer off into uncomfortable territory. The much maligned sand scene actually is pretty great however the scene with fireplace is terrible and could have been so much better. I could give more examples of where the dialog failed the story but that’s been overdone (Almost everything with C3PO).
The only other thing that doesn’t work is the lack of continuity between AotC and ANH. After Anakin and Padme decide to leave Tatoonie I would have like to have seen Owen try to convince Anakin to stay and not get involved, the Jedi are idealistic fools on a hopeless crusade.
What worked
Anakin’s talent with the force was highlighted well, he seemed to be better than everyone else with exception of Yoda. He is also cocky about his abilities which to me matches well with Vader’s opinion of himself. Obi-wan’s entire storyline was great and if anything could have been expanded. I found the acting to be as good as the material presented unfortunately Hayden and Natalie’s performance suffered because of the poorly done scenes however MOST of their work is great. Yoda teaching the younglings scene was fantastic and the interaction with Obi-wan and the other masters fit with how we saw them. The story and plot are quite good in themselves and though and despite it being the longest run time for any Star Wars movie it feels shorter.
The lightsaber battles were very good. Obi-wan vs Dooku was great as it showed Anakin’s rashness was a weakness and Obi-wan’s methods had there place. One thing about the movie that the book did better was Anakin vs Dooku. The movie was not as dynamic as the book made the battle seem and Anakin seemed more of a badass in the book but it was still good. However the best was Yoda vs Dooku. I have heard people complaining of how Yoda fought with a lightsaber but because its so unexpected is why I love it. When the battle is over and Yoda goes back to his walking stick… that is just pure awesome.
Final Thoughts
I wish the Jedi council had raised Anakin to a Knight but basically a be with Padme and leave us or give that up and stay, with Anakin choosing Padme. Palpatine could have then asked Anakin to be his personal Jedi and represent him on the council with no vote. Thereby putting Anakin in the hands of the Sith Lord but allowing him to continue to work with Obi-wan. This would have set up the next film nicely. I still like this movie even though I can see its faults and missed opportunities.
We’re now 24 days away from The Force Awakens! We’re now entering the big time of Force Awakens news. The news is coming so fast and furious that it can be hard to keep track of everything! Spoiled Blue Milk is here to do our best to at least give you the most important stuff. It’s time for your Weekly Recap!
1. First footage of The Force Awakens! This was played at the start of a tribute to John Williams
@mazlow01: Dialog! I love dialog. John Boyega seemed to be making a crap ton of noise when running. I found that odd. And Daisy’s dialog seemed to me to be calm considering everything. However based on this scene I think the Finn trailer dialog where he says we need to run is him talking to Daisy.
@davestrrr: I was really surprised how different a short bit of footage could be from a trailer. HUGE difference. The music, the excitement. We’ve seen those shots a few times, and it was really cool to see that there is dialogue going on at the same time. Cool that we know Rey is already a pilot. I mean, we sort of already knew this because it was long known that she would fly the Falcon. However, still cool that she calls herself a pilot, just like Anakin and Luke did before here. Rey is a young, precocious pilot on a desert planet…Hmmm.
2. Yahoo News has just reported that The Force Awakens is finished (found via MakingStarWars)
Abrams officially finished the final mix of Force Awakens at 2am this morning. Movie is done folks!
— Yahoo Movies (@YahooMovies) November 22, 2015
@mazlow01: Sweet! Hopefully we will get a rating soon then. I’m thinking its going to be PG.
@davestrrr: Nice to hear that it’s done done. My money is on PG. If it is PG-13, then we’ll know that this one is more intense than thought.
3. New leaks from the Look-and-Find book have been compiled here. For example, this image:
@mazlow01: This basically confirmed about 10 of MSW earlier reports. I now feel that the plot he has out there is the basic bones of the movie and anyone disagreeing just doesn’t like Jason.
@davestrrr: So lots of details here. We know know that the resistance base planet is called D’Qar, and we know that Leia sends the squadron to help our heroes at Maz’s castle. We also get our first live image of Lor San Tekka. Looks like the old cyborg rumors are false, unless he has a cyborg arm off screen or something. Lots of good details here.
4. New TV Spot! This one has a shot of Nien Nunb and Jessica Pava:
@mazlow01: Anyone else think Jessica is going to die? Just me? Anyway that is pretty cool. Every time I see Finn fight that stormie I get excited. There is a shorter version of this commercial that shows off BB-8 using cables to stabilize himself too.
@davestrrr: This is great. Nice to see good old Nunb in action live. Just like old times. The voice is exactly the same.
5. There is a new rumor about the livestock on Han’s freighter at Making Star Wars.
@mazlow01: I suspect this gets cut. I don’t know why but its seems an odd break in the narrative the way it is described.
@davestrrr: So this is where the Octopus ended up. I hope this doesn’t end up looking really cheesy and overly CGI. Something about too many tentacles ends up looking strange.
6. Disney has only shown 5% of the marketing campaign according to a new report.
@mazlow01: Jebus save me! I will never leave the couch if I’m getting more Star Wars! That being said I think that the 5% is an exaggeration.
@davestrrr: Hope they don’t oversaturate. I don’t know, it feels like we’ve already seen 5% of the film. What could the rest of the ad campaign possibly bring?
7. First live shot of Maz Kanata found in a new commercial (source):
Compare this shot to the leaked Lego image and the Poster:
@mazlow01: The video has been removed… I think maybe it wasn’t supposed to be released. Maz looks different than I expected even after what we have seen already. Maybe there are a few shots needed more CGI work?
@davestrrr: The video is no where to be found. Hopefully this image is OK. My first impression was that Maz is cuter than I expected! Almost certainly will be a top selling toy/new character.
8. GamesRadar is reporting an interview with Mark Hammil where he claims to be holding a huge rumor secret.
@mazlow01: I saw on twitter he said this was about a Joker project. Then again maybe he’s just throwing us off.
@davestrrr: I’m not sure about it being about Joker. It seemed like in the context of Star Wars. Yes, the interview was something for Joker, but I definitely got the impression that he was talking about Star Wars. I would assume that this has something to do about the intervening years before TFA, or the parentage of some of the main characters.
9. Yet another spot showing off a couple of new scene and new dialog from Maz
@mazlow01: I love Maz’s line here. Rey is looking for belonging and family. Its not in her past but her future… aka LUKE!
@davestrrr: Seems like a lot of the same footage, but I like the new shot of Rey. Yeah, the Maz thing is very optimistic about the future. I feel like we’ve been getting a lot of little sound bytes from a motivational speech that Maz will give. Still seems bizarre, with that little alien character sounding like that, but hopefully it will make sense on screen.
9. Bonus: Watch Jimmy Kimmel Tonight for interviews with the cast of The Force Awakens
I’m going to open up this review by leveling with you my dear readers about how much of a nerd I really am. I saw The Phantom Menace(TPM) at midnight on opening day. I waited in line all day long(I was second in line). I beat the real life version of The Simpsons comic book guy(serious looked just like him) in Star Wars Trivial Pursuit, twice, and I only missed one answer between the two games(Worst nerd beating ever). I was in costume. As Darth Maul. I did all of my own make up, made the horns and did my own sewing. I made the local news. So TPM has a special place in my heart. That being said I am not one the new breed that defends TPM ignoring its faults but I also recognize it is much better than people have given it credit for over the last ten years or so.
Dis is bombad
I’m going to start off with what I didn’t like in TPM and most of that is in the first third of the movie. Jar-Jar’s dialog and reactions in the first part of the movie were over the top. As you watch the rest of movie the character and his speech settles down and he becomes tolerable if not a favorite. I also didn’t like Qui-Gon’s attitude toward Jar-Jar when he first meets him. He’s arrogant in way that he is not for the rest of the film. The fight scenes of Obi-wan and Qui-Gon as they rescue the Queen and when they escape Naboo are kind of terrible. Droids are randomly close so the Jedi can cut them down and it just isn’t visually appealing.
Speaking of visually appealing the CGI in the vista type scenes does not hold up well. I am speaking of the droid army approach to Thead and in the final battle when the droid army approaches the Gungan and after the Gungan shield falls. But those are the only CGI fails I have.
There is one other mistake made in the first third of the movie. For example the way R2 is introduced. Too much telling not enough showing. We never knew what R2 was doing to fix things just that he fixed it. Instead of just throwing us in to the universe as ANH did TPM tends to explain everything its setting up. This is the real basis of the people’s problems with the movie as a whole. Fortunately this is limited to the first third.
Finally lets discuss Anakin Skywalker, the character not the actor that portrayed him. Anakin has some goofy lines but nothing terrible, in fact there are only two terrible things that revolve around Anakin. First is the hanging speech. By that I mean the two scenes where Anakin is speaking and Padme and Qui-Gon “interrupt” him. Its obvious he has nothing more to say and his fellow actors are supposed to interrupt him. This a failure in editing, scripting, and direction. If the actor had been given full lines and was actually interrupted or if the interruptions we cut in quicker it would work better. The second is Anakin’s line and actions during the space battle. This is a boy we just saw fly in and win a podrace. During that podrace he made on the fly adjustments and repairs while keeping his cool and righting his pod while it was spinning and under the control of one engine. He would not accidentally fly into a control ship or say “spinning is a good trick” The character could have and should have been more purposeful in his actions. It appears luck helps him out as it stands and we all know “There’s no such thing as luck”.
This is SO Wizard
Alright lets get to the good stuff which pretty much includes everything after we meet Anakin. Which brings me to my first great thing, this movie is not about introducing us to Anakin, its about introducing Padme. Padme’s world is the one used by the Trade Federation, its her decision to leave with the Jedi, then to come with Qui-Gon to Mos Espa, she is entire reason Anakin tries to catch up with them after he leaves Wattos, she decides to call for no confidence in the chancellor, then she heads back to Naboo, forms an alliance with the Gungans and formulates the plan to take back her planet. Just about every decision that moves the plot forward is made by Padme. Her interactions with Anakin when they first meet are great and show that Jake Lloyd was a good child actor. Overall Padme’s character is my favorite in TPM.
Shmi, Watto and Sebulba are all great characters. The CGI on Watto and Sebulba was the kind of work that has held up. I actually felt that Shmi wanted only for him to be free. Everything she had suffered through would be worth it if he was allowed to leave with the Jedi. The podrace was absolutely fantastic work both visually and storytelling. It showed us how resourceful Anakin was and he was something special. There was tension both in the race and for those watching it. Our first introduction of Darth Maul vs Qui-Gon was a fantastic little battle. Once they arrive at Coruscant we finally get to meet the Jedi council and see the Senate. The Jedi are arrogant and dismissive of a fellow master Qui-Gon because he doesn’t follow the party line. Its awesome! The Jedi are ripe for a fall from prestige due to their attitude. And then we see the Sneate and Palpatine, good lord he’s fantastic. Why isn’t Ian McDiarmid in more movies? The Senate itself is another institution that has festered and is ripe for manipulation and destruction. I don’t think people expected that when they walked and they missed the undercurrent of how this sets up the rise of the Empire.
The final battle really works for me. The gungans are no Ewoks and came to fight and brought their own tech and army. They are for the most part formidable fighters and do quite will against superior tech and numbers. Then we have the Duel of Fates. Second best lightsaber duel behind Empire. This was what we wanted to see. Jedi at their absolute height of power and skill. The only thing I would have done to improve it was give Maul taunting dialog to both Qui-Gon and Obi-wan. The space scenes were great and I wish they had given us more including more Anakin fighting in space. At the end of the movie we once again see the Jedi’s failure. In their arrogance the masters refuse to choose Anakin as a padawan forcing Obi-wan’s hand.
Final Thoughts
I have gone though all range of emotions regarding TPM over the past 16 years, I loved it when I first saw just because it was new Star Wars, I hated because I could only focus on its faults, and finally I’ve come to love it again while still recognizing it is not perfect. There things I wish had been done better however it does compete for best of the prequels for me and it is a great addition to the Star Wars mythos.
We are just about one month away. By tomorrow at 7pm we’ll be one month from the first showings of The Force Awakens. The news is coming fast and furious. It can be tough to keep up at times. That’s where your friends at Spoiled Blue Milk come in. We’re here today to review the past week’s news and leaks for Star Wars. Let’s begin:
1.) New TV Spot!
Looks like Carrie Fisher’s daughter’s in this screen cap of the Strategy Room.
@mazlow01: That’s her! The TIE escaping is really cool. I like than Han moment of handing Rey the blaster. I was hoping he was giving her his when I heard of the scene but still. I don’t think Rey and Finn are holding hand as much as they are trying to stay together, based on what we’ve seen so far they don’t even know each other’s names at this point
@davestrrr: Some great shots here. Finn and Rey holding hands? What does this say of a possible love story there? I love the TIE fighter being pulled by a cable, ultimately to be released. The physics there looks cool. This is certainly the moment when Finn and Poe escape. The shot of Han handing over the blaster to Rey is pretty cool, other than Rey’s expression. She looks kind of dazed. Can’t blame her from what she’s been through. Love the shot of Finn fighting that Stormtrooper with the lightsaber, more on that below.
2.) New UK TV Spot:
@mazlow01: Man I love all this new footage! Kylo deflecting shots looks like a mix of OT and PT styles of blade work. I think him reaching out is stealing the blaster from Rey using the force. Finn and Rey in the Falcon “Get ready!” “For what?” awesomeness. When the quadship blows up is obviously what forces them to the falcon The attack on Maz’s castle looks intense. And the best part is rumor has it the music is John Williams.
@davestrrr: Some good stuff here. The best is the shot of Maz’s castle, confirming the previous concept art that we’ve seen like this one:
That art has been around for a while and it looks spot-on. The music! Yes, it was confirmed that this is John Williams. The crashing TIE! Hey, I think they scene with Rey saying “Get ready!” and Finn saying “For what?” has got to be before the big loopdeloop that the Falcon does in the first teaser.
3.) A pretty cool new Verizon add featuring Chewie and BB-8
@mazlow01: Honestly that could almost be a scene from the movie. I am betting we are seeing how BB-8’s personality is. Chopper meets R2
@davestrrr: No doubt these are movie-props and costumes, and I would think that the set is also movie-quality too. Excellent shots there. The puppetry of BB-8 is great. Hopefully some of this will shine through in the movie.
4.) New Disney XD UK Featurette:
Also, StarWarsNewsNet did a nice report on it.
@mazlow01: Nothing breaking here but still cool to see a few new angles on shots.
@davestrrr: Not much too new here, a few of the behind the scenes shots are new. Among the new stuff is a shot of General Hux saying “Fire!”, and he says it with such character. He says it like a greasy villain and almost spits out the word with disdain. The shot of Han and Chew saying “We’re home!” is a different version from what we’ve seen, this time with a bigger, goofier smile. I wonder which version will make the final cut.
5.) New interview with Andy Serkis dicussing Snoke. From the article we have the following quotes about Snoke:
He is large. He appears tall. And also just the facial design – you couldn’t have gotten there with prosthetics. It’s too extreme. Without giving too much away at this point, he has a very distinctive, idiosyncratic bone structure and facial structure. You could never have done it [in real life.]
@mazlow01: I’m guessing based on the size comments and the facial structure comments that Snoke will end up looking very similar to the original Emperor Designs
@davestrrr: This is pretty exciting. Justin Bolger (@theApexFan) was on Collider Jedi Council recently, and those guys are pretty convinced this means a certain Muun. Muuns are really large and can have a narrow body structure, impossible to be created with prosthetics. Sure, countless other alien species are the same way, but one can’t help but wonder…
6.) Looks like a StormTrooper with an Electrostaff/baton! Although this was part of the TV spot, it might be worth mentioning because it could say something about the weapons of the First Order in The Force Awakens:
@mazlow01: It definitely implies they received some training related to lightsabers. Whether it was defending against them or actually using them its pretty cool.
@davestrrr: This is pretty interesting. The weapon that the StormTrooper has is a type of “riot baton” that is electrified. You can see it in this toy pic here. So this raises the question “Why would the Storm Troopers have a lightsaber-proof riot baton? Why would they add that functionality unless they were expecting it?” Makes you wonder if lightsabers have become more common.
7.) Larry Kasdan is retiring after the Han Solo Anthology film (source The Hollywood Reporter)
@mazlow01: Honestly I’m ok with this. Its great he’s going out on Star Wars
@davestrrr: Larry Kasdan has probably had one of the biggest impacts on Star Wars, next to Lucas. The good news is we still have two forthcoming movies written by him, and he will get to go on and do other things that he wants to do after this, and enjoy a well-deserved break. That is, unless he goes straight back into directing after this.
8.) Darth Vader Sculptor working on Rouge One.
@mazlow01: Vader in Rouge One has been mentioned about a million times this seems like confirmation to me!
@davestrrr: I hope this means that we do see Vader in Rogue One. It would make sense given the time frame. This would be the key time to have a young-ish Vader in the suit, doing a lot of badass Sith fighting. I can only imagine they will jump to that opportunity.
9.) Gina Rodrguez cast for Episode 8
@mazlow01: This is pretty thin.. and I wonder what her role will be? Pilot? Jedi in training?
@davestrrr: I guess this is worth reporting, but way to early to say anything about it. I think it’s great that they are expanding an already diverse cast and continuing to bring in diverse talent.
10.) A Slew of interviews from EW.com
@mazlow01: There wasn’t much in the way of news in these articles but they did provide great insight into the actors.
@davestrrr: The key new piece of info there was Maz Kanata being over 1000 years old. This makes her character quite intriguing. Looking forward for more info there.
Empire Strikes Back, may favorite Star Wars film. I finished watching this again this morning and took copious notes that I didn’t really need because I have seen this movie two hundreds times or so. You can read my A New Hope Review here and next week will be The Phantom Menace. Lets jump right in!
The opening scroll sets the tone for this movie to me. It boils down to Death Star is gone but now the Empire is really pissed off and the rebels are in trouble. Our first shot is of probe droids being sent out into the galaxy and we see one land on an ice planet, Hoth. Next is our shot of Luke which shows the droid land on Hoth again. I don’t get showing it twice and I don’t like it. Its honestly a flaw I don’t think I ever really noticed until now. Luke and Han converse and Han still calls Luke kid. There is a brotherly feel to these two. Then on a planet with very little life a giant predator attacks Luke. What does it live off of? Anyway Han is back at base unaware that Luke is in trouble and lets the Rebels know he is leaving to pay off Leia. Han and Leia have a confrontation about her feelings for him(and his for her) that Han gets the better of. Though why he can’t go pay off Jabba and come right back is beyond me. Not sure why this is a big deal. Eventually people notice Luke isn’t back yet and when C3PO informs Han he’s both worried and a smart ass. “Impossible man” says C3PO and the way Han speaks to him I can understand why. Han then takes off after Luke despite warnings he will die. Luke is his friend and Han will die for his friends. Luke gets away and we see a new force power and then we see a force ghost right before Han finds him. Yay everyone is safe.
Battle of Hoth
After Luke is recovered we have a little reunion where Han is once again a smart ass but Leia gets the best of the exchange by kissing Luke. This is not weird because the writers did not know they were related at the time, I swear. Han and Chewie investigate the probe droid and the Rebels begin their evacuation. Back with the Empire we see a Super Star destroyer and damn its big. The Admiral is condescending to Vader when Vader says Hoth is where the Rebels are, its like he doesn’t know or believe what he has heard about him. Or thinks he is safe which no one is. When they come out of hyperspace the rebels are ready with a shield up. Vader blames the Admiral and kills him. Vader ain’t playing around. Captain Piett gets a promotion though so that’s nice! The battle of Hoth is visually very cool but for me what makes it great is the music. John Williams takes a good battle and just makes it incredible. We get to see Leia not as a Princess but as a military leader also which is pretty cool. Han has to convince her to leave and ends up taking her off planet himself. Vader just misses out on them. Luke and R2 head out after the battle and instead of meeting up with the rest of the rebels Luke heads toward Dagobah. R2 obviously thinks something is wrong with Luke and offers to take control. R2 is definitely worried Luke has gone crazy.
Han and Leia
I’m going to follow the Character story lines for the rest of this review until they met up. So lets jump into what is going on with Leia and Han! After leaving Hoth they are being chased by Imperials ships. Three Star Destroyers and a bunch of TIE fighters however Han can out maneuver them. When he goes to hit the hyper-drive it fails and C3PO is finally allowed to finish a sentence to inform them he noticed it was busted. Han and Chewie attempt to fix it on the fly but have to head back to cockpit when they encounter an asteroid field. Han does what Han does and enters the asteroid field despite everyone else thinking its crazy. He is able to successfully destroy his pursuers and find them a hiding place to repair the Falcon. Han an leia are left in the cockpit alone and one of my favorite all time scenes happens. (Ends at 1:57)
Han once again gets the better of the exchange. Han and Leia then have a great little flirt/fight scene when they finally kiss. Unfortunately C3PO ruins it. Han really does care and you can see it in his face, Leia looks confused. Han finally gets the Falcon put back together and then realizes they are not in a cave. Leia is a little slow on the pick up though. When the hyper-drive fails again Han pulls a cool little trick out of his pocket and hides ON a star destroyer. This leads to Vader killing yet another Imperial. After this trick its as though Leia realizes how much more to Han there is and she may have been selling him short and they don’t fight again for the rest of the movie. They head to Cloud City unfortunately Boba Fett knew of Han’s trick and was ready to follow.
Once they land at cloud city we meet Lando Calrissian and he seems nice. Honestly I do think Lando is happy to see Han and is in an unenviable position. Lando promises to repair the Falcon and sets up Han and Leia with nice digs and clothes. When he leads Han, Leia and Chewie to Vader he is being honest. Han’s reaction is pure awesome. He puts himself between Vader and Leia immediately and begins firing at Vader, no hesitation. Later Han is tortured and we find out Vader is continuing to worsen the deal Lando made with him. Lando reveals that the deal wasn’t about Han and Leia its about Luke. This doesn’t mitigate him lying to his friends but he obviously didn’t actively give them to Vader and thought they would be left unharmed and in the end free to go. Han and Leia have their moment before Han is put into carbonite. After this Leia is once again slow on the uptake as Lando sets in motion to free them. It makes me wonder if Chewie hadn’t attacked him would they have had a chance to catch up to Boba Fett and free Han. Lando and the rest of them head to the Falcon after not catching up to Boba Fett in time. Once on the Falcon they take off and another aspect of Williams score comes to the front. They strings in unison with the lasers hitting Falcon is just a great shot. They are all set to leave when Leia has Chewie turn around to get Luke. Speaking of Luke lets catch up to what he’s been doing.
Dagobah
After Luke lands on Dagobah he meets Yoda and is quite frankly kind of a petulant child. Rude and dismissive its as though he has spent too much time hanging around Han, which he probably has. Yoda however rolls with it acting like a simple crazy little creature, and its awesome. Finally Yoda speaks to Obi-wan and Luke realizes what a fool he has been. I noticed Yoda’s speech pattern becomes normalized once he stops acting and starts talking to Obi-wan. Anyway Luke does a bunch of training with Yoda and fails in the cave because he took his weapons. Luke’s x-wing sinks further into the swamp and Yoda challenges him to lift it out with the force. Yoda describes what the force really is and how size does not matter. Its quite beautiful. Luke fails and tells Yoda he asks the for impossible. Yoda then lifts the X-wing and Luke is again put in his place and properly ashamed. Luke then has a vision of his friends in trouble and decides to leave. I’m not sure why Yoda doesn’t come with him here. Surely the two of them would easily defeat Vader right? Yoda tells Luke to mind what he gas learned and it will save him. He and Obi-wan speak and he mentions another hope.
Once Luke lands at Cloud City he runs into both Boba Fett and Leia but he does nothing to pursue either which is odd since that’s kind of the reason he is there. In the end he faces Vader in what is easily the best Lightsaber battle in any of the movies. There is emotion in every scene and great dialog. Luke obviously thinks he can handle Vader at first and Vader underestimates Luke. By the end of the battle Vader has stopped holding back and shown who is the better fighter. Then there is the reveal, Vader is Luke’s father and Luke is given the chance to Join him. Luke chooses a possible death instead falls toward the planet. Luke reaches out to Leia and Leia responds getting Chewie to go back for Luke.
The Ending
Once they rescue Luke they end up meeting with the rest of the Rebellion. Luke gets a new hand and Lando is earning his way in to the fold by tracking down Jabba and the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Things look terrible for the group but there is still hope.
Women want him, men want to be him, bounty hunters want to find him, he is Han Solo. Throughout the original trilogy Han grew more than any other character, even Luke. Coolest guy in the Star Wars universe (sorry Lando) and he always found a way but who is he now? Lets explore who Han was and where he is going in The Force Awakens. Also, be forewarned. If you’re trying to avoid possible spoilers, you don’t want to read on.
When we first met Han he was cocky and a bit of a braggart. He also was in debt to a gangster name Jabba. Throughout the first movie Han repeatedly acted as though he had no personal stake in any of situations they were in. He was worried about protecting himself and getting paid. In the end he came back to help Luke and the rebellion, showing his true self. In Empire we see Han has accepted responsibility in the rebellion and has become a leader. He also has found love and of course he approaches it in the same sarcastic way he approaches everything else. Finally, in Return of the Jedi, Han grows even more. He is still sarcastic and independent but he is also thankful for his friends. He has grown enough to be willing to step out of the way thinking Luke and Leia have something they don’t. He’s also willing to accept help, something he always seemed reluctant to do. The scoundrel grew into a responsible somewhat mature man and Leia’s obvious paramour.
So lets figure out what we know about Han in The Force Awakens. First off, he doesn’t seem to own the Millennium Falcon anymore based off of his line “Chewy, we’re home”. Just from the way it is said it appears Han and Chewy haven’t been on the Falcon for a while. In fact, there was an old rumor at MSW where they claim that:
probably lost the Falcon days–if not moments–before The Force Awakens begins.
However, we think the time span was longer than this based on his comment to Chewy.
There is a brand new article on EW that suggests that Han Solo has continued to have money troubles which leads me to believe he either sold the Falcon or had it taken to pay a debt.
Based off of this information I also believe its safe to say that Han and Leia are not together at the start of The Force Awakens. Why would they have fallen apart? Its not unknown for couples to be unable to survive the loss of a child and I believe that this would certainly tear them apart. If their child was assumed dead or knowingly chose a path that was counter to what Leia and Han had fought for I could see them separating. The pain of loss is something both of them would take out on each other. Is Han a father? I think yes based on the idea that he and Leia are no longer together. As to who is Han’s child I am not 100% sure but it will be either Rey, Kylo, or both.
Han also still has his contacts in the underworld of the galaxy. He is the one that takes Rey and Finn to see Maz Katana and from the rumors and leaks we know he was on a large ship with various criminal organizations when the Falcon is captured. So it seems in the 30 years since Return of the Jedi Han is once again single and reverted to his pirate/scoundrel ways. However it appears he still has the heart that made him a lovable character based on the interview with EW .
What is Han’s character arc and actions in The Force Awakens(This information is based off the numerous reports from MakingStarwars.net and official media). We meet Han and Chewy, still best buds, when they board the Falcon and meet our new heroes. One thing is for sure, Han has warmed up to the idea of the Force. He went from a vocal skeptic to saying “It’s true…all of it” in the TFA trailer. So it might be fair to say that Han has found a spiritual side in his later years.
There is a small skirmish and Han and Chewy leave with Rey and Finn. This is where we have our scene from the Trailer showing Han tell Rey and Finn its all true. Han, recognizing Luke’s lightsaber, takes them to Maz Kanata. There is a battle while at Maz’s and Han is ready to surrender when X-wings come to save the day. Han and Leia reunite after the battle and while awkward at first they do still love each other. Han enacts a plan that ends up with the Falcon crashing on the First Order planet, possibly coming out of hyperspace in the planet’s atmosphere to avoid detection. It is on this planet that Han meets his death. Based on the evidence I’ve seen, I am 100% certain that Han Solo dies in an effort to give Chewy a chance to finish the job and save Finn and Rey. His death will be at the hands of Kylo Ren.
Wow what a week! With no warning we got not one but two new looks at The Force Awakens footage and a slew of small news pieces. We are now just under 6 weeks from The Force Awakens! Lets get started on the news:
mazlow01: OK so that was great! It might be better than the first full trailer, I can’t decide. I noticed the dialog that Rey has with BB-8 doesn’t actually match. It seems like a conversation but when she says “My Family” the sound quality and background noise seems different. I’m not sure the lines follow each other like we think. I love the new shots. My favorite was Rey on her knees with Kylo’s lightsaber at her neck showing yet another scene MSW got right. Loved the introduction of Rey and Finn too.
davestrr: This was a great surprise. A lot of good new shots in here. I love this opening shot better than the US trailer both visually and musically. We got a little more confirmation about Rey waiting for her Family, supporting the idea that she was left on Jakku by her family. I think this is yet another point that MakingStarWars was right on. We also got the interaction between Rey and Finn where they give each other’s names. There is definite hesitation by Finn, suggesting that he is making up the name based on his StormTrooper ID, further confirming the rumor that Finn is an orphan and his StormTrooper ID is his name. The sunset shot with the TIE fighters is great. It is very reminiscent of the helicopters in Apocalypse Now (shown in the right):
mazlow01: I loved Maz’s castle it looks like old concept art of Vader’s castle from early ANH development. Maz is more and more becoming the character I can’t wait to see on screen. Snoke who? And the great shot of Kylo deflecting the blaster bolt is awesome. And if you pay attention you’ll notice the scene where Rey helps Finn up has been cleaned up a few things moved and BB-8 added in. And finally that shot of the Falcon crash landing? Amazing looking,
davestrr: Again, a really nice surprise. The footage keeps coming! The new shot of the approach of the Millennium Falcon to Maz’s castle on Takodana. In addition we have what is certainly a new recording of Maz Kanata. There was a recent post on EW.com by Anthony Breznican theorizing about Maz and her goggles and that they may hold some sort of power. I think it is interesting that they go to a shot of Han right after the line “I have lived long enough to see the same eyes in different people”. This might be a 
suggestion of a familial relationship between Han and Rey, to whom she is speaking. Other points is it looks like we get a bigger shot of the flags in front of Maz’s castle. At the top center, there is a flag not seen in the first trailer that looks like the “Broken horn” symbol seen here. We also get some great action shots of Rey. The first shows he taking out some thug with her staff on Jakku. The second is her shooting blaster shots at Kylo Ren, who deflects them expertly. We also have a shot of what looks like Rey throttling the Millennium Falcon controls, possibly punching it into hyperspace.
3) Toy with new Rey dialog (MakingStarWars.net)
mazlow01: I like the new dialog, it confirms to me that the Kylo Ren toy has actual dialog too.
davestrr: A few little details there. We have Rey saying “I’m just a scavenger”, echoing what Kylo Ren had said to her in another toy. My guess is this is Rey later repeating what Kylo had said in order to feign ignorance on something she is hiding.
4) TFA concept art became Rebels character
mazlow01: I think this was early Snoke concept art that was re-purposed. It makes me wonder what direction they went with Snoke.
davestrr: Certainly makes this guy look more Vader-like. This is so similar to the Fifth brother, I assume this is an early draft of this character, but hard to tell. Why did the dials need to be right over his nipples? This is Wat Tambor all over again.
5) Daisy (Rey) and John (Finn) had several interviews released this week. AOL, Entertainment Tonight, The Hollywood Reporter, CNet, and ASOS
mazlow01: We didn’t learn much but I just love their attitude. They seem so much more excited than the cast of TPM did.
davestrr: Some good stuff. Although we didn’t really learn much about the movie, we do get to see some of the chemistry between John and Daisy, which is pretty good. Hopefully that shines through in the movie. One thing that caught my attention was the guy in the CNet interview quotes Boyega as saying “Finn is on a journey that will make him a super hero”. When I heard this I felt this was the most concrete evidence that we have that Finn will become a Jedi. Yeah, I know he wields a lightsaber in the trailer, but I’m talking the Jedi super-powers that warrant the term “super hero”. It has seemed that we don’t have hard evidence of Force-powers until now, but this quote supports this idea.
mazlow01: Dude very cool shots again and they are really pushing Finn with the lightsaber. The casual fan won’t know about Rey until the movie.
davestrr: Interesting that we have all of them covering up their right eye. The only one that isn’t looking straight on is Leia for some reason. However, I’m not going to read too much into that since it could have just been a better take. Other than that, these look great. The shot of Rey is amazing. Actually everybody looks amazing in these shots and look sufficiently “bad ass”.
7) New Leak of Maz Kanata Lego figure:
mazlow01: The glasses confuse me. As does her general appearance, I’m not sure if she is a Jedi or not. Did she learn from Luke? Does she have a lightsaber? Still she sounds so cool in the trailers so I am still excited about her.
davestrr: This definitely looks like the poster character. This looks a little older than the poster, and possibly more like ET.
Very interesting. This isn’t very much like I would have imagined at all, and I imagined something more like Alf or Station from Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. This was in part based on rumors that I had read, but with that said, this was back when all we had were leaks of concept art.
It is interesting what purposes if any do her goggles serve. The back of her head is new. We haven’t seen this in any detail yet. However, it looks like her goggles are somehow attached to her hat/headgear. Could be just as simple as corrective lenses, but could be something more.
8) Finally we got a couple of pieces from children’s books posted at Jedibibliothek (Found via MSW). Of particular interest is this “Look and Find” cover, showing Max Von Sydow’s character in the lower right. We get two shots of the Rebel base, and one of Maz’s cantina.
We have decided to re-watch and review our favorite films in anticipation of The Force awakens. I’ll be doing a modified machete order which is 4,5,1,2,3,6. So lets jump right into it!
This shot is pure awesome. I didn’t understand how great it was until I saw it in the Theater in for SE in 97. The rebel ship comes and you can’t help bu think “That’s a big ship” then the Star Destroyer comes in and it just keeps coming. This works on the TV but its just not the same as it was on the big screen. We spend almost all of the next 20 minutes following two droids around. In today’s terms that would be like opening the first Iron Man with 20 minutes of Happy and Pepper doing stuff and bickering. I don’t people really get how unusual that is. We do meet Princess Leia and Vader during that 20 minutes but their importance isn’t known yet.
Finally we meet Luke and he is kind of a dork that works on the family farm. Honestly I’m glad they cut the scenes they shot of Luke at Tosche station because they make him look even worse. However John Williams score really helps you relate to Luke when he’s looking out at the setting suns of Tatooine. Finally the plot starts to cook when Luke and C3PO take off after R2D2 and meet the crazy old wizard Ben Kenobi. At the same time we see Vader display the power of the force by chocking a rude imperial from across a table. The intrigued but non nonchalant look on Tarkin’s face is awesome. Back with Luke and Ben, Ben looks uncomfortable when he describes how Luke’s father died which is great because at this point I don’t think George Lucas had Vader as Luke’s father.Luke wants to go with Ben to save the princess but he is weighed down by trying to do right by his Uncle. Fortunately the Empire gets rid of that obstacle in the worst way possible and Luke decides to follow in his Father’s footsteps to become a Jedi.
As we enter Mos Eisley we see yet another force power as Ben influences a couple of Storm Troopers. Luke shows us who he really is, a naive young man that is putting on bravado to compensate. His line “I’m ready for anything” shows us who he wants to be or at least thinks he should be. He is quickly shown that he is not ready for anything and Ben has to bust out his lightsaber to put some punks in their place. Ben and Luke are then introduced to our final protagonist Han Solo. Solo is a bit of a braggart here but there is a confidence there that is sincere. I’m watching the special editions so Greedo shot first but whatever Solo is still cold as hell as he tosses the bartender a coin “Sorry about the mess”. Then Han talks to Jabba, once again Han acts like a tough guy. I hate the walk on Jabba’s tail part. Just have him walk behind Jabba and disappear for a second. He has no dialog as he walks behind him so keeping his face in frame is dumb.
Han and crew escape headed to Alderaan and Luke gets some Force training with his lightsaber. Han is looking for approval and doesn’t get it so he mocks Luke. Ben ups the ante and basically shuts up Han and gives Luke a confidence boost. We learn a lot about Leia and the Empire in the destruction of Alderaan scene. Leia is willing to lie even with the death of her home planet and billions of lives are in the balance to keep the rebellion safe. Tarkin and the Empire by proxy is willing to destroy billions of innocent lives to keep the Empire safe. Same goals but yet completely different and you just know it. Great scene. Next we have the Millennium Falcon pulled into the Death Star, finally all of our players are in the same place. Ben goes to ensure they can escape and Luke plays to Han’s weakness(Money!) to get him to help rescue the princess.
The scene depicted above has always been a favorite. When Han shoots the com panel and say “Boring conversation anyway” its funny, shows us more about Han, and seems real. Finally all three are in scenes together and you see who they are. Leia is more mature than either of them, you see she is used to being in command and expects people to follow her orders. Han is independent and has no idea what to do when someone challenges him especially a younger woman that acts like he is an idiot. And Luke is idealistic he came in with good intentions and isn’t quite ready for how the best laid plans fall apart. The way they interact and their dialog for the entire death star sequence and escape is fantastic you see there is more to Han than he lets on. The fight between Ben and Vader is simple but good. They never really seem fully into the fight though. I wonder if Vader is concerned that Ben might beat him again. Either way Ben came into the fight ready to die and once he has Luke as an audience he sacrifices himself. One final push for Luke to accept the role of Jedi.
And finally we have the big battle. Han has taken off to save his skin and Luke uses a little pity to get a kiss from Leia. Once the battle starts its all action all the time. After two failed attempts on the reactor shot Luke, Biggs and Wedge go in full steam ahead. Luke was given the go ahead to lead the final assault by Red leader. He must have impressed because Wedge and Biggs were both part of the rebellion forces before Luke even left Tatooine. As he approaches his final shot Luke loses both R2 and Biggs who he was obviously friends with. Vader is bearing down on him recognizing that the Force is with Luke when Han comes out of nowhere to save the day. Luke makes the perfect shot and they all go back to celebrate though Vader lives to see another day.
A New Hope definitely starts slow but once Luke and Obi-wan get together the plot picks up the pace and never slows down. The stakes get higher and problems get more difficult. Its an absolutely fantastic piece of cinema.
Rating: A
Follow me on twitter @mazlow01 and stay tuned at SpoiledBlueMilk.com on MWF for more updates (@spoiledbluemilk)
Greetings, everyone! We had quite a week last week with a few leaks and news nuggets. There may be some spoilers here, so be warned. Also, thanks for making last week our biggest week yet here at SpoiledBlueMilk! Let’s begin…
Ever since the trailer came out there has been a question of “Where is Luke Skywalker?” We’ve discussed this before. So we’re not going to go back over that again. However there is an idea that has gained popularity: the “Luke is Evil” theory. Specifically we are talking about the Huffington post article here by Rob Conery. Plain and simple this article is wrong and I’m going to break down why.
“The Cave… Remember Your Failure at the Cave…”
In the article, Rob Conery quotes the movie and concludes this:
Only a fully trained Jedi Knight, with the Force as his ally, will conquer Vader and his emperor. If you end your training now… if you choose the quick and easy path as Vader did… you will become an agent of evil.
There it is: Yoda said it point blank. How many times has Yoda been wrong in the first six films? It’s almost like he can see the future sometimes! He knew Luke was on a path to become his father and, by leaving, he failed at preventing it. -Rob Conery
In this point, Conery is missing a key part of Yoda’s meaning. What Yoda is saying is IF Luke quits now AND then chooses the quick and easy path he will become an agent of evil. Quitting now does not mean Luke has chosen the quick and easy path. He must do both. Luke was given the opportunity to choose that path by Vader at the end of their duel. Luke choose to jump to his possible death instead of joining Vader. Yoda wasn’t predicting the future he was providing a warning. Yoda also added this: ” Strong is Vader. Mind what you have learned. Save you it can.” Luke did mind what he had learned and it did save him.
The Original Ending
Conery first talks about the ideas that were tossed around including Han dying and Luke walking off like Clint Eastwood does in his movies. This ending was never made and it was never even scripted. Gary Kurtz, a producer not a writer, is the one sharing this information that was based off of story discussion during the Production of Empire Strikes Back and was never used in any draft. Oh and Leia wasn’t Luke’s sister, part of the reason he was leaving alone at the end of this idea was to find his sister. They also discussed Luke becoming Vader after Vader’s death. None of these ideas made it to the screen or even script treatment so they are as important to the idea of Luke embracing the Darkside as the now discarded EU “Legends” are to The Force Awakens. He then brings in the idea that Mark Hamill had about making Luke Dark. I’m sure based on how well Mark Hamill plays evil(Joker, Trickster) he would have loved to have done that. But again Mark isn’t a writer, he just liked the idea from an acting point of view, and it never made it into any script so they are not relevant to Luke’s character in the movies.
Conery continues:
“Nevertheless, I’m taking Captain Solo and his friends. You can either profit by this or be destroyed. It’s your choice, but I warn you not to underestimate my power.”
Was that a threat? A touch of arrogance perhaps? No — Luke would never!“As a token of my gratitude, I present to you these two droids. Both are hard working, and will serve you well…”
One second. Hold on here — was that a lie? Why yes, it was. Luke is giving in, he’s drawn to the dark side. Wow… Luke lies. Keep that in mind. -Rob Conery
Was that a threat? Not really, it was an offer to a criminal, give me my friends and I’ll let your criminal enterprise continue. Luke then warned said criminal that if he didn’t take it there would be consequences and not to think that Luke couldn’t enforce those consequences. As for his perceived arrogance, its more calm confidence and we’ve seen Obi-wan, Yoda and Mace Windu all act more arrogant than Luke did in this scene. Next it was not a lie technically. Luke DID give Jabba C3PO and R2D2 and they were hard working. In fact Luke did not claim the droids back until AFTER Jabba failed to accept Luke’s final offer and was subsequently killed (By Leia not Luke). Even if it was a lie, it does not have anything to do with the dark side. Qui-Gon lied to Watto, Obi-wan lied to Taun-We and Lama Su in AotC. He also lied to Luke in ANH. Yoda lied/deceived Luke in ESB. Three of the Jedi who most symbolize the Light, all have lied to achieve positive goals.
Luke Turned, We All Watched It
Conery next says:
The emperor was working Luke pretty hard, and croaked in his guttural monotone
“Take your weapon. Strike me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete.”
And guess what? Luke tried.
“Soon I’ll be dead and you along with me”-Luke Skywalker to the Emperor
Later in the sequence Luke loses it completely when Vader finds his soft spot (caring about his friends) and squeezes hard…Saving friends, and now family. Vader has just threatened his sister and Luke gives in. This doesn’t make sense if Luke has been a good guy the whole time. It makes perfect sense if he has indeed failed his training (which he did) and doesn’t have the ability to withstand his dad. Whom he idolized and wanted to be just like, all of his life.
This, people, is a plot hole. It doesn’t make any sense in terms of the story and also Luke’s character. It doesn’t follow Luke’s motivation at all because he quite clearly doesn’t have any motivation to stay a good guy. He’s just seen what he could do with his dark powers (defeat the bad guys, save people).
You can watch what happens next in two very different ways. The first, most obvious, is that Luke looks at his mechanical fist and then at his dad’s severed hand and realizes what could happen — oh no! Let’s make sure we come back from this ledge and stay on the Good side. This makes no sense in terms of Luke’s motivations.
Or, what I think, is that Luke looked at his fist and realized the effectiveness of his new power. Soaked in the revenge (the movie was entitled Revenge of the Jedi originally, I think this is why) and let the hatred indeed fill him… indeed make him powerful.
This would seemingly blow a hole in my story. Luke just flatly said he would never turn. He monologs for a bit about why he’ll be a Good Guy, always. He’s also lying through his teeth (like he did to Jabba, above). But why would he lie? Because he has to take out the emperor, and he knows his dad (Vader) is weak and vulnerable.
What happens next is a bit of deja vu. The emperor has realized that he has created just a little bit more than an apprentice — he’s created a rival. Why else would the emperor stop with the taunts right then? The emperor has Luke exactly where he wants him — it doesn’t make any sense to stop now!
Unless the emperor fears Luke. As he should — he just took Vader out of the equation.
The emperor tries to destroy him with the old shock treatment in the same way we saw in Revenge of the Sith (facing off against Mace Windu). In that scene, Palpatine played on the sympathies of Anakin to cut Windu’s hands off so he could toss Windu out the window.In this scene, Luke plays his dad in the exact same way to toss the emperor into the abyss. Ahh symbolism.
“If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed! Young fool. Only now, at the end, do you understand. Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the dark side! You have paid the price for your lack of vision!”
“Now, young Skywalker… you will die.”
1) To Obi-wan Luke: There is still good in him.
2) Princess Leia: But, why must you confront him?
Luke: Because, there is good in him. I’ve felt it. He won’t turn me over to the Emperor. I can save him. I can turn him back to the good side. I have to try.
3) Luke: It is the name of your true self. You’ve only forgotten. I know there is good in you. The Emperor hasn’t driven it from you fully. [steps off to the side of the passageway, away from Vader] That was why you couldn’t destroy me. That’s why you won’t bring me to your Emperor now.
Vader: [inspects Luke’s lightsaber] I see you have constructed a new lightsaber. Your skills are complete. [turns off the lightsaber again] Indeed you are powerful, as the Emperor has foreseen.
Luke: Come with me.
4) Luke: No. You’re coming with me. I’ll not leave you here, I’ve got to save you.
Anakin: You already… have, Luke. You were right. You were right about me. Tell your sister… you were right.
His motivation was to bring his father back to the good side. Trying to interpret Luke’s actions otherwise you have to leave out crucial steps and actions, as Mr. Conery has done, or your argument falls apart.
And another thing!
There are a couple of important things that we do know about post RotJ Luke Skywalker that need to be addressed. If you’ve avoided spoilers you won’t want to read on.
First, the new comics and books being released are considered canon to the stories of the Movies. In the book “The Weapon of a Jedi”, C3PO confirms that Luke returns Devaron after RotJ to rebuild his Jedi Order. Also in “Shattered Empire 4”, Luke, with the help of Shara Bey(Poe Dameron’s mother), retrieves the last remaining fragments of a force sensitive tree that once was in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. He gives one to Shara and keeps one for his new Jedi training temple.
Second, is the picture of Mark Hamill in his full Luke Skywalker costume. This was originally posted by StarWarsNews.net and Lucasfilm quickly issued a cease and desist so we won’t provide you with the picture however you can find it if you really want to and I will describe it. Luke is dressed exactly like Obi-wan and all the other Jedi from the prequels were. His robes are lighter than we usually see but not unusually so. He is the epitome of what we think a Jedi should look like. If you don’t believe the rest you should believe a photo of Old Luke as a Jedi in The Force Awakens.
We first heard the name Resistance in April at Star Wars Celebration and immediately there were questions. What happened to the New republic? Is the First Order in control of the Galaxy? What is the nature of the Resistance? Well we have some ideas we’re going to break down using what we know and what we suspect.
Immediately following the Rebellion’s victory at Endor they restructured themselves into the new Republic. After the death of the Emperor, the Empire spiraled into chaos according to an old report from Making Star Wars. Several former imperials tried to claim the throne of the Emperor, while Mas Amedda tried to hold things together. After this, the Rebel Alliance was able to secure several star systems with little push-back, and ultimately they declared themselves the New Republic.
Their ranks swelled with planets and fighters as the new Republic took the fight to the scattered Empire culminating in the Battle of Jakku. We in fact learned that the new Republic was in effect during the battle of Jakku from some promotional material for Star Wars Battlefront that reads:
Fans who pre-order Star Wars Battlefront will be among the first players to experience the Battle of Jakku, the pivotal moment when the New Republic confronted key Imperial holdouts on a remote desert planet on the Outer Rim.
From there the Republic planned a massive reduction in military forces and encouraging the planets to have their own defense forces. All of this we know based on the Journey to The Force Awakens novels and comics. So far there has been no information released or teased that says the Republic is not still around. Based on this I believe the Republic is still around and quietly supporting the Resistance as the Republic does not have its own military. The Republic is most likely left the outer rim alone and this allowed the First Order to coalesce., It appears there is an uneasy truce between the Republic and the First Order, one that most likely not survive the events of The Force Awakens.
One question is, will we see any scenes of a new Republic Senate in TFA, or it will it be only alluded to like the senate in ANH? At this point, there is absolutely no evidence of any new Republic Senate scenes, but given that such scenes could be almost entirely CGI, it is hard to rule it out.
The Resistance is a military organization that opposes the First Order. It is lead by General Leia Organa. They do not appear to be officially part of the Republic and are made up of former Rebel leaders like Ackbar and new fighters that have fought against the First Order. We know this, for example from the junior novel “Moving Target“, where PZ-4CO says:
“You are the leader of the Resistance, a critical check on the designs of the First Order. You are a symbol of the Resistance and an inspiration to all soldiers who follow our cause and do their duty in hard times.“
So, it appears that the Resistance may have been created to fight the First order. In addition to General Organa, we also have reports of Major Caluan Ematt, who also fought for the rebel alliance. Major Ematt was among the “shrikes”, a special rebel recon team. In fact, Major Ematt was the only surviving shrike after an ambush on Tanaab. Could this be the same battle of Tanaab that Lando referred to in RotJ? What role with Major Ematt play in TFA? Still no hard evidence at this point.
The Resistance has adopted the symbols of the former Rebellion such as the X-Wing and the starbird (see above symbol). So what are they really? It appears they are an independent military that is supported by the Republic and formed for one reason only: Stop the First Order. I think this is why they are searching for Luke, they need a Jedi to help fight against Snoke and the Knights of Ren. After decades of no military force the Republic is not ready or able to fight against the military machine the First Order has built on the outer Rim. The former military leaders of the Rebellion put together their own forces calling upon the many planetary forces in the Republic.
We got a look at the resistance base in the new trailer, and it closely resembles this concept art, but with mountains added in the background, but at this point it is unclear what planet it could be on but there many different reports calling it Yavin IV
Why are the Republic and Resistance separate? I think there are two reasons in the end. First it is made up of former Rebellion leaders that are better fighters without the interference of the Senate. As we saw in the prequels such large bodies can make running a war next to impossible especially when the dark side can be used to influence members. By having them separate the are free from the influence of certain groups. Second one of the biggest complaints of the prequels was the political scenes and tone. I suspect that JJ is avoiding the Republic and its politics through the Resistance, keeping the Galaxy small and storytelling tight. In the end I suspect we will find out the Resistance is really just another word for Republic “unofficial” Military forces.
Although we both love the original trilogy (a.k.a. the Holy Trilogy), in this post we’ll discuss the 10 things that we’d change if we had the chance in a perfect world. We did a similar post about the Prequel Trilogy not long ago. There are two of us (mazlow01 and davestrrr) and we don’t always agree on what should be changed! Let’s begin:
1) Two Special Edition changes- Emperor’s dialog in ESB and Han vs Greedo shoot out in ANH
Mazlow01: I don’t want to just make this about SE changes and honestly I like most of them., so I am going to mention these two. Han shoots first. We know George knows this, the change was stupid. In ESB they had Ian McDiarmid re-shoot the scene where the emperor speaks to Vader which hey that makes sense lets have them look the same. BUT they changed the original lines which was terrible. Lets compare just the changes:
Original: EMPEROR:We have a new enemy – Luke Skywalker. VADER:Yes, my master. EMPEROR: He could destroy us. VADER: He’s just a boy. Obi-Wan can no longer help him.
SE: Palpatine: We have a new enemy. The young Rebel who destroyed the Death Star. I have no doubt this boy is the offspring of Anakin Skywalker.Vader: How is that possible? Palpatine: Search your feelings, Lord Vader. You will know it to be true. He could destroy us.
That is the type of dialog that limited the story telling ability throughout the prequels.
davestrrr: I don’t necessarily mind Ian McDiarmid doing the scene in ESB, and I think it is good to have the same actor throughout. For the dialogue, I don’t really have a problem with the new dialog. Actually, in some ways I actually like that new dialogue better! As for Han shooting first, yeah, that shouldn’t have been changed. It makes less sense now with the whole neck twitch thing to dodge the blast. I thought shooting first was actually better for his character. He’s a scoundrel and a smuggler. Somebody comes to claim a bounty that could potentially cost him his life, Han would definitely shoot that punk-ass bounty hunter down.
2) Death Star 2.0
Mazlow01: Seriously another giant planet killing star base super-weapon? They couldn’t come up with better idea? Instead of using a super weapon how about just put the Emperor on Coruscant on the Anniversary of the formation of the Empire and have have a goal of disabling the planetary shield to attack? Or just on a regular space station or anything besides Death Star the sequel: Bigger, better, this time with a force field!
davestrrr: Yeah, I can see this. Maybe having just one Death Star would work better. When to do it? I think just keep the original trench run, since that is classic. RotJ could have just been an epic space battle, and maybe something cool with a Super Star Destroyer with a force field that needed to be blown up from the inside. Lando could still have needed to pilot inside once the shield was down, and navigate inside to blow it up.
3) Leia being Luke’s sister.
Mazlow01: I know what some of you are thinking: sacrilege! Hear me out though. When Empire was written the idea was Luke had a twin but it wasn’t Leia. He was going to have to go find his brother or sister after Return of the Jedi to restart the Jedi order. Making Leia his sister is just cheap. Vader and Palpatine both interacted with her face to face (I am assuming as a senator she dealt with the Emperor though maybe not still they had to have had SOME proximity) and they couldn’t tell she was Force sensitive? Or hey you bear a striking resemblance to my dead wife and you are the adopted daughter of one her allies in the senate that just happened to be born around when she died. Really?
davestrrr: Yeah, having Leia be adopted by the Bail Organa when they needed to be hidden from the Emperor doesn’t make sense. Her becoming a Senator when she needed to be hidden from the Emperor didn’t make a lot of sense either. Luke going to Tatooine to Anakin’s stepfather’s old house doesn’t make a lot of sense either for that matter, but people have argued why it does (Anakin was traumatized by that place). That’s another story though.
Anyway, with Luke and Leia being twins, I always thought it was hinted at from the get-go with them both having 4-letter names starting with L. Maybe it wasn’t planned all along, but to me it kind of made sense. Just the explanation that Leia needs to be adopted by one of the most high-profile families in the galaxy in order to hide from the Emperor doesn’t make sense.
4) Ewoks. Why’d it have to be Ewoks.
Mazlow01: So this is where I am supposed to say it was dumb they were able to beat the Storm troopers etc. That’s not my problem with the Ewoks. I don’t care that they are cute lil teddy bears. I don’t find it that hard to believe that with superior numbers, knowledge of the terrain and the obvious planning they had done, that they could beat the Storm troopers. My problem is they should have been Wookiees. The Ewok attack was based off of one of the early drafts of ANH and they were wookiees then. Replace all those ewoks with wookies and how bad ass is that! It would have been SO much cooler and wookiees are just as loved by children as Ewoks are.
davestrrr: Well, we got that scene in RotS, so it’s all good. I don’t know about the Ewoks. I don’t hate them, I don’t love them. I definitely loved the Ewoks when I was 8 years old, so I’d keep them around. I have a distinct memory when I was a little kid I liked RotJ best because it had both Yoda and Ewoks.
5) Diversity
Mazlow01: Total of what 4 female characters with any type of lines? Two die with in minutes (Slave dancer and Aunt Beru) Mon Mothma is in one movie has 3 lines and isn’t seen again. Then there is Leia. Yeah she’s awesome but she’s the only female character in all three movies and she doesn’t speak to the other female characters. Then minorities. In ANH the only one I remember is the voice of Vader James Earl Jones. Then we get one supporting character Lando in Empire. Finally in RotJ we have a couple of more but still its pretty whitewashed. That is a damn shame, not because diversity is needed for diversity’s sake but in a wide galaxy of diverse aliens we get not much diversity in the humans.
davestrrr: Yeah, it is hard to argue with this. We need more strong female characters. I think ANH, in terms of the number of non-white actors on screen is a bit embarrassing. Yeah, James Earl Jones did voice work, but there should have been at least one actor on set. I guess it was filmed in England and maybe back then the vast majority of actors in England were white? Not sure, but I’m guessing that was part of it.
1) In terms of the Special Edition, I wouldn’t have introduced Jabba the Hut in ANH.
davestrrr: The CGI was terrible in the first version, and the second version was a little better, but still pretty bad. I thought it was better when Jabba was left more mysterious and not introduced until RotJ. It was cool to have the character mentioned, and not seen until much later.
Mazlow01: OK I can see this. I never liked the idea of Han stepping on his tail or the introduction of Boba Fett in that scene. It was just more of a hey look here’s a fan favorite!
2) Use a practical Millennium Falcon in RotJ
davestrrr: There is a scene with Han and Lando talking by the Millennium Falcon, and the ship is a painting. There are other matte paintings in the OT that work a little better, but this one sticks out. A lot of people that complain about the PT and its over-reliance on CGI, need to take a look at this:
Maybe some old school fans like this better than CGI, but I don’t think it is any better. It still lacks some depth to me, and looks like a “green screen” shot. I wish there was a way to make the ship practical, and/or do the shot next to it or at least next to a practical ramp.
Mazlow01: OK I have to be honest I do remember seeing this but it never bothered me. I always chalked it up to effects of the time kind of thing.
3) Improve the lightsaber fight between Obi Wan and Vader in ANH
davestrrr: This fight was a bit weak. I mean, it was explained by the fact that Obi Wan was old, and Vader was half robot, but I think it could have been better. Maybe some Force pushes, maybe some Force-thrown objects. Maybe some stunt doubles doing a few better moves. Maybe using some of the same face-swapping CGI tech that made Dooku more dynamic in the PT. Something. I remember watching ANH with a friend that hadn’t seen Star Wars before, and she was yawning and frustrated during this scene.
Mazlow01: OK so here’s an unpopular opinion, I’d say slow down the fights in the PT. Lightsabers were supposed to be heavy and only a Jedi could weld one because the force was needed. I like the simplicity of the OT fights.
4) Why didn’t Chewbacca get a medal?
davestrrr: This seemed weird. Wasn’t he just as much a part of the whole ending as Han? I mean, he was the co-pilot, and played a big role in rescuing Leia. When they turn around, and he gives that roar, you know he’s pissed that he didn’t get a medal.
Mazlow01: Dude I just argued for more Wookiees so I am on board with this all day long.
5) Boba Fett’s death is too simple
davestrrr: I think Boba Fett was kind of played up as being a bit of a badass. His death falling into the sarlac pit was a bit lame. It was an accidental hit to his jetpack. I think a more epic showdown would have been more fitting. He should have been harder to kill.
Mazlow01: OK so here is ANOTHER unpopular opinion. I don’t think Boba did anything to earn his “Badass” rep in the movies. He just looked cool and was smart enough to think “hey maybe this smuggler will use a smuggler’s trick” and then followed Han to cloud city. I mean why would we think he was awesome at anything?
I know what you are thinking–more prequel bashing. Not here! Although we enjoy the prequels, in this post we’ll discuss the 10 things that we’d change if we had the chance. We will do a similar post about the Orginal Trilogy soon too. Not ony that, there are two of us (mazlow01 and davestrrr) and we don’t even agree on what should be changed! Let’s begin:
1) No Qui-Gon Jinn. Merge his character and Obi-Wan in TPM.
davestrrr: I have to disagree about #1 with Qui-Gon! He is essential. He is the guy that had the view about the Living Force before anyone else, and ultimately who discovered retaining awareness after death. Maybe it could work if everything was shifted around. Also, you have the parallels between Obi Wan’s “death” in ANH and Qui-Gon’s death in TPM.
Mazlow01: See I would merge those qualities into Obi-wan, he’d be the outcast Jedi Knight not yet made a master, though with his ability alone should have already. TPM would end with him becoming a Master and being able to choose Anakin as his Padawan. As far as learning to live on after death that could be something he figures out with Anakin. Anakin’s obsession with keeping people alive after losing his mother and Obi-wan working with him tempering his ambition.
2) No Darth Maul! Merge him and Dooku together- Show Dooku on the Council mention him leaving after the duel on Naboo
davestrrr: On #2, it may work as you have it. Depends on how it is done. It does seem a little weird that there are so many bad guys in the prequels and so few in the OT, so maybe merging a couple would be better.
Mazlow01: That was my goal. I’d also add in Grievous to TPM. Make him the general in control of the droid army control ship. He becomes the cyborg we see in ROTS because of his injuries escaping the droid control ship when Anakin blows it up. You could also show Dooku as the one objecting to Anakin becoming a Jedi instead of Mace looking like the bad guy.
3) Have Anakin Build R2 not C3PO- A mechanic would like an astromech more than a protocol droid. A queen would need a protocol droid
davestrrr: I like #3, that does make some sense. Maybe because of all the gadgets that R2 has makes it impractical to be built by a kid, and after all, Anakin built C3P0 for his mom.
Mazlow01: I don’t know why a Protocol droid would be of any help to his mom anyway. I think R2 being built by Anakin would explain his personality and why he has so many cool things.
4) Have Anakin made a Knight at the end of AOTC and given the choice by the council of marrying Padme or staying with the Jedi to one day be a Master. Anakin chooses Padme, Palpatine asks him to be his liaison to the Jedi.
davestrrr: With #4, I don’t have a problem with your idea, but I also don’t consider this a flaw in the prequels. I thought it that sequence of the marriage and joining the council in RotS worked for me.
Mazlow01: The idea here is give Anakin more reason to not trust the Council and to resent them. Also it allows Palpatine to influence him more. I think people have a problem buying into why Anakin turns so quickly. This gives us reasons for distrust of the Jedi and trust in Palpatine
5) Have the Sith lighting show Palpatine’s true age… he is 200 plus that is why Anakin believes he can save Padme.
davestrrr: For #5 that is an interesting idea. One thing that people complain about with RotS is how quickly Anakin turns to the darkside. Maybe if he had confidence that he could save Padme because he sees that Palpatine is really old, then that might have been more believable.
Mazlow01: Thank you! This plus number 4 gives us reasons why Anakin would turn. It would help prove that Plagueis COULD keep people alive through the force and give us a good reason for the emperor’s appearance.
1) Introduce the villains briefly an episode earlier (introduce Dooku in TPM, and Greivous in AotC). This way the trilogy holds together a little better.
Mazlow01: I like this idea… the villains just seem one note the way they were in the PT. Sure Dooku survives AotC but then he turns around and dies in the first 15 min of RotS. It was just a waste of good potential.
davestrrr: I agree on the wasted potential on Dooku. Given that he was probably ordering the clones during TPM, including him in a scene could have gone a long way.
2) Make the clone troopers in AotC, and maybe RotS, practical costumes. The CGI on them got better in RotS, but with AotC, they just don’t look real. I would have done all the clones practical, and then digitally copy them for the big scenes.
Mazlow01: GOOD LORD YES! I tend to fall into the trap of fixing story elements because I want to avoid the idea of blaming the green screen but this is one place where the movie suffered.
davestrrr: Yeah, I think this was a sore thumb in AotC. Scenes like when they were boarding the Republic Star Cruiser at the end of AotC just didn’t seem lifelike enough for me.
3) Have an older Anakin in TPM. I think having a 10 year old and different actor was a bit rocky. It may have flowed better if they used the same actor throughout. It could have paralleled the OT better if it was the same actor.
Mazlow01: Again I agree here. Starting him as say a 14-16 year old vs a 10 year old just gives certain story elements more heft.
davestrrr: Yeah, I think that’s it. However, I can also see that Anakin needed to be a certain height, and the timing makes the growth spurt that the actor may or may not have difficult to predict. I’m guessing that might be part of the decision.
4) I would have titled AotC something like “The Clones Retaliate!” to make the grammar more similar to ESB.
Mazlow01: On this one I disagree completely. I love the title Attack of the Clones. I can’t explain why it just hits me.
davestrrr: Interesting. Yeah, it is kind of an interesting title. My biggest thing is that too many titles are “blank of the blank”, so one less might be good.
5) I think it would have been cool it have a scene with the ordering of the clones in TPM. This would tie the trilogy together I think.
Mazlow01: See I don’t think its needed. Having them be an unexplained doesn’t hurt anything. At best a closing scene with Sidious and lets say Dooku with a “You’ve seen to our friends on Kamino?” “Yes my master the next stage has begun as you have foreseen” it would give us a view but nothing direct.
davestrrr: Maybe you’re right. The mystery might have been lost if a scene preceded AotC. Tough to tell.
In closing…
Mazlow01: As a close out I would like to point out neither of us mentioned Jar-Jar and I want to now. I don’t necessarily like him BUT I know tons of kids that thought he was great. I could see making him a Han Solo type- Gungan smuggler bringing in Naboo stuff that is against the law and that’s why he was banished. But I honestly don’t think he needed to be fixed.
davestrrr: Yeah, I actually don’t have many major problems with Jar Jar. We are probably different in that respect. The thing is, Jar Jar was annoying in a way because his character was supposed to be annoying. The other characters even verbalized it, for example Obi Wan saying “Why do I get the feeling we’ve picked up another pathetic life form”. It was Qui-Gon that saw Jar Jar’s value and brought him along. In the end, it paid off. Part of being a Jedi is seeing the inherent value in someone that goes beyond clumsiness or behavior that could be seen as annoying.
Rebels tells the canon story of how the Rebellion against the Empire developed until A New Hope. This leaves us with a bit of a problem though, three problems actually, Ezra, Kanan, and Ahsoka. It would seem that they would be present at the Battle of Yavin though I could see them skipping that, however by the time ESB rolls around Luke and Yoda are all that is left of the Jedi according Yoda. So what what happens to the heroes of Rebels? This is going to be pure speculation, there is nothing to back this up so far except the known canon.
Is it Monday already? Well last week had quite a few new character bits and pieces come out. Various rumors that seem to back up several of our previously posted theories. Lets not waste anytime and jump right in. And remember as always spoilers abound.
“And it’s all about the story and family. I mean that’s what J.J. is all about.” – Greg Grunberg talking about The Force Awakens.
So far The Force Awakens has given us two protagonists and one antagonist without a last name and it has set the speculation machine afire. We’re going to break down what we know about all of our characters and who their possible parents or children are.
The question that convinced J.J. Abrams to direct The Force Awakens was none other than “Who is Luke Skywalker?”. It makes me wonder what answer he found. Based on prevailing rumors Luke is more McGuffin than character in The Force Awakens, so will we know who Luke Skywalker is at the end of this movie? Does anyone in the movie really know who he is? Is that maybe the real question that J.J. was wanting to answer? Let’s see if we can figure it out based on who he was when we last saw him and what we know so far.
Lets look at who he was when we last saw him. When we first met Luke he was nothing more than a whiny farm boy. From what we could tell he had only his Uncle and Aunt for company and maybe some “friends” in Toshi station. In short he was nothing special. Through ANH we saw him begin to trust the Force would guide him and accept it was his path. By the time we met him again in ESB he had grown in his abilities but is not in wisdom. He learned from master Yoda and increased his skills but took a step back in willingness to follow the Force and truly submit to it like he did during his trench run in ANH. He is cocky and reckless, then he is humbled by his father Darth Vader. Finally Luke completes his journey to becoming Jedi. In RotJ Luke is confident calm and in control of himself he has become Jedi his father should have been.
He was given a mandate by Yoda to pass on what he learned and so he did. He had a spot picked out on Devaron based on the book Weapon of a Jedi to open his Jedi Academy. Presumably, he did set up an Academy. If he did, where are the Jedi he trained? From the rumors and the footage we have seen there are no Jedi. In fact we can say there are only three force users not on side of the First Order, Leia, Maz and Rey. No rumors or leaks conclusively say Finn has the ability to use the force so even though he uses the Luke/Anakin lightsaber I am reluctant to add him. Now I suspect Maz was trained by Luke and it appears she not only knows Han but also Leia and possibly the Luke/Anakin lightsaber. But that is all we have information about so where are the others Luke trained?
We know there is a Force vision flashback scene that is lead by Maz. Here is where our first look at Luke Skywalker in the movie comes from. We have glimpsed a part of it in the trailer I believe that this is the aftermath of the attack on Luke’s Academy all of his apprentices are dead or presumed so as are the Jedi he had trained thus far. Based on reports from both StarWars7news.com and MSW we know this flashback takes place approximately 10 years before the start of TFA. The First Order or the Knights of Ren(or both!) are responsible for the death of the Jedi and based on differing translations of the lines from the Kylo Ren toy Kylo and Snoke believe Luke is the last of the Jedi alive (3 translation use singular Jedi the German translation uses plural).
This tells us after the destruction of the Jedi Luke went into hiding. The question is why would he do so, did he believe that by training Jedi he was forcing the Force to create darkside users? Or was it for his safety and/or others? I have a pet theory that the First Order has the ability to find someone using the force which is why they show up at Maz’s castle. Perhaps Luke figured this out and needed to hide or the Jedi would die. I suspect its a combination of needing to hide and guilt over the death of those he feels he could have or should have been able to save. Most importantly his Nephew(Kylo) and niece or daughter(Rey). I don’t see his hiding as far fetched as both his masters Yoda and Obi-wan hid when they had to.
We did get a leaked photo of Luke during some sort of dress rehearsal, promotional photo or 3D scan for a toy (Most likey). We won’t post it here because there have been “cease-and-desist” orders sent to other sites to take it down. It isn’t hard to find it online with a google search. It’s interesting that his robe lacks sleeves and looks more like this old robe in RotJ, rather than the prequel era Jedi, but this makes sense given this comes right after. His robe is a lighter color. Usually in Star Wars the outfits have symbolic meaning. Characters like Darth Vader and the Emperor wore all black, and in general usually extreme colors signify evil. Whereas the Rebels wore earth tones such as greens, browns, tans, etc, the bad guys wore mostly gleaming white (Storm Troopers), jet black (Vader, Emperor), or blood red (Imperial guards). In RotJ, Luke was skating a little close to the edge, Force-choked Jabba’s guards, and wore this Emperor-like robe:
So it appears with the new costume, Luke is going more earth tones, and lighter, softer shades for his robes. I think that with the new Luke outfit, we are reassured that he is with the light side of the Force. The symbolic significance of character’s wardrobes in Star Wars was perhaps why this image was a pretty serious leak because of what it reveals about which side Luke is on in a sense, hence why they issued take-down orders to many of the sites. It’s crazy to think that a year ago, a lot of people thought Luke would be a cyborg villain. Amazing in hindsight how little we knew back then. So safe to say that Luke is still a good guy.
Star Wars has always been a story of the Skywalker family. It is a little bit hard to imagine a Star Wars that isn’t a story of the Skywalkers in a way. Maybe they can pull it off and expand the galaxy as it were. But the story at its core has been a story of family, in particular the Skywalker family. If there is a character in TFA that is an offspring of Skywalker, it would have to be Rey and/or Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren has been heavily hinted at being Han and Leia’s child in various rumors as has Rey. Technically both would be Skywalkers but named Solo… something tells me the last name is important. Why else would you hide Luke as a baby but let him keep the last name that was known across the galaxy.
I’d say if Rey isn’t Han and Leia’s daughter, they certainly are heavily implying it to fool us. But they wouldn’t do something like that would they? would the makers of the movie ever make elaborate attempts to save the ultimate twist for opening night of a movie? Of course they would. Because this is 2015, and information goes at the speed of light. With the internet today, it isn’t like the days of Empire Strikes Back, when a secret could be kept. The more you think about it, the more it makes sense that they would deliberately imply misinformation to save a few juicy twists. After all, Star Wars is known for having twists based on familial relationships, and maybe this is the only way to make it happen in 2015. So we have to think that if Luke is in hiding he’d have to have had a very compelling reason. I think the loss of his Daughter would be more than enough reason to shut himself off from the rest of Galaxy no matter what is going on. Therefore, regarding whether or not Luke has children, definitely don’t write this one off just yet in fact I lean towards counting on it.
According to the plot synopsis from MSW, we have only one scene with Luke during the TFA time frame, receiving the lightsaber from Rey at the end of the movie. R2, C3PO and BB-8 decode where Luke is and Chewie Rey and BB-8 go to find him. StarWars7news.com has reported there may be a third Luke scene most likely from a recording so the decoded message may be what they are referring to. So will the final scene be Rey handing Luke the lightsaber, doubtful however no matter what this is the only current Luke Skywalker scene we should expect unless SW7N was correct here
Here’s my interpretation of what we will see and hear in Luke and Rey’s final scene.
Rey climbs the outside of a ruined temple and then enters the massive door.
Luke: How did you find me, who are yo- (sharp intake of breathe) I thought you died.
Rey: I ran when we were attacked. Sarco found me and took me away to keep me safe, taught me how to survive and defend myself.
Luke: I didn’t know.
Rey: Its not your fault. This is yours I believe.
Rey hands him the lightsaber.
Luke looks it over and ignites it and smiles.
Rey: I’ve come to complete my training.
Luke: You will be Jedi. Like your father.
Luke hands the lightsaber back to Rey. Scene cuts away to two figures outside the temple fighting one with a blue lightsaber the other with green.
Credits
There you have it everything we know about Luke and how it fits. Let us know what you think in the comments below!
Hi everyone, it’s Monday again, so here’s your weekly recap of Movie related news and spoilers.
Episode VII
1. First off on The Force Awakens, there is news from MSW and others that there will be 7pm shows on December 17th.
With the release of multiple “speaking” toys we have our first glimpse into TFA dialog and that leads us to multiple questions. First is will the dialog actually be in the movie as there precedence of that happening(Star Lord toy comes to mind) second where are these in the movie and third who are they talking to? As to the first I believe most if not all of these will be in the movie, though some might end up with a different intonation or slightly different phrasing. As to the second and third question well that’s the point of this article! Note this almost PURE speculation however it is informed speculation. more “We have dialog, what does it mean?”
Through six star wars movies there have been a few consistencies, Lightsabers, Jedi, Star ships and Droids. Often ignored by their human counter parts, the droids have been the supporting cast saving the day as often as our “Heroes”. Yet the two most famous droids in the Galaxy seem conspicuously absent from many of the rumors and advertising with the new kid on the block BB-8 all over the place (with exceptions…recall that R2 was the first character to be confirmed for TFA in the image below). What does this tell about the movie and what has happened to C3PO and R2-D2?
Only four characters made it through the first six movies and three of them went through serious changes: Obi-wan became a force ghost, Anakin became Vader to become Anakin again (force ghost) and C3PO had his memory wiped. This means only R2-D2 has been through it all and remains unchanged. For most of the major story arcs through all six previous films either R2-D2 and/or C3PO was present and for the few they weren’t present it is certain they were around when the main characters discussed what happened and they no doubt discussed what they saw and heard between themselves. For this reasons it has seemed that we are being told these stories by R2-D2 and C3PO (translating R2 for the prequels) and before the introduction of BB-8 I assumed they’d be telling the sequels too. However our droid duo has become a trio or possibly even a quatro.
It appears that for the first half of this movie BB-8 is our “story teller” as he is around most of the action. He is Poe’s droid that escapes when Poe can’t and is found by Rey. From there the two hook up with Finn and then Han, Maz etc. Throughout every rumor of the first half of the movie BB-8 is there or will no doubt over hear what happened (Finn and Poe’s escape).
With that, we have a parallel to ANH. In ANH we had Leia entrust the Death Star plans with R2, and in TFA we’ll likely see Poe entrust BB-8 with the lightsaber, assuming he’s found it at this point, and the story will follow BB-8 for a bit like it did the droids.
R2 and C3PO are with Leia at the Resistance base as is another new droid character PZ-4CO(the possible fourth), who we were introduced to in Moving Target. In fact, StarWars.com updated its databanks with an entry for “peazy-fourseeo”. Based on the rumors it appears that after Luke’s Jedi academy is attacked and destroyed, R2, who was with Luke, is sent to Leia. C3PO was already with her in a role much like his in ESB and PZ-4CO is acting as Leia personal droid.
From the plot synopsis posted at MakingStarWars.net, we know that one critical role the droids will play is decoding some kind of puzzle hidden in Luke’s lightsaber. Perhaps, Luke put it there so that they would find him eventually when the events before the film were set in motion. R2 has shown himself to be a natural code-breaker, plugging into computer terminal and interpreting the Imperial network in the earlier films. It’s possible that the old duo of R2 and C3P0 aren’t in the film a lot, but nevertheless play this critical role in moving the plot forward. Indeed, it could be the scene from the above canister where this happens.
One big question that may mean absolutely nothing is C3P0’s red arm. Could be nothing could be something. Probably nothing and probably won’t even be mentioned in the films….still. Some people around the web have pointed out that the red accent is on his left side, just like the red accents seen on the TIE fighers:
So if we were to go out on a limb and get crazy-speculative here you might wonder is this red accent a First Order thing? Makes you wonder if before the events of the film, C3P0 was trying to infiltrate the First Order at some point and had to change out his arm to fit in with the other First Order droids who are also adorned with this red accent. Part of why this is pure speculation is to my knowledge we haven’t seen any First Order droids yet. Interesting hypothesis nonetheless. We will get an answer soon though as there is a one shot C3PO comic on the way in December that tells us why he has his red arm.
Mazlow01: This is just awesome stuff and I think I’m going to do a post tomorrow about filling in the dialog and where it fits in the sequence of the movie. Nothing too spoiler-ish but the line “destroy the last Jedi” tells us Luke is all that is left and to me implies that Leia never learned to use the force. I’m not sure I like that.
davestrrr: I think Phasma sounds great. You can definitely tell she is a woman by her voice. I’m only pointing that out because in a way that is a departure from other aspects of this character’s design. As for Finn, I think he sounds pretty cool. I think his normal accent would have worked and I’m a little disappointed they didn’t use it, but I think his American accent rocks too.
Mazlow01: I’m a little surprised by the description of the super-weapon. I think they left out its most important feature, it can do so through hyperspace. Unlike the Death Star, the Starkiller weapon doesn’t have to be close to kill. The rest of these seem like the entries on the back of one of the toys.
davestrrr: Some new characters here too. At this point, between the toys and the coloring books, the new characters are coming in so fast, it isn’t clear if any of these are new, or just hit the web yesterday. I’m a little intrigued by Sarco Plank now that I know that he has a history with Luke Skywalker due to “Weapon of a Jedi”.
Mazlow01: I’m hoping this means either a Knight of Ren or he’s an a-hole but on the side of the resistance.
davestrrr: No surprise here. Good to get some confirmation of what a lot of people suspected, though. I think the fact that we are getting a new villain is a little concerning. Hopefully he is not replacing one of the bad guys that I want to see more of…I certainly hope that Kylo Ren and Snoke make it past this film and are developed further. There were some reports that Hux doesn’t make it out of TFA alive, so maybe Del Toro’s role will be similar to Hux.
Mazlow01: I doubt its Galen Marek, its probably just a throw in name to give people a feeling of familiarity. I doubt he will have force powers, I hope he doesn’t.
davestrrr: I also doubt that it is Galen Marek, but hey, when I heard this rumor my first thought was that if it was Galen Marek, what if they develop this character throughout all the anthology films, almost as if we have a trilogy of Anthology films connected by a common villian. If something like that is in the works, then it might be cool to introduce a character as potentially big as Vader’s apprentice. Nevertheless, it seems very unlikely because his age doesn’t really work out with Rogue One unless they change the character for the new canon.
When the first teaser for The Force Awakens was released back in November it had Storm Troopers, TIE fighters and a bad guy in black with a red lightsaber, it is so very familiar and yet different. Was the Empire still around? What happened to them after Return of the Jedi? Then we were told these new Storm Troopers we members of The First Order, so who exactly are the First Order?
Supreme Leader Snoke, the man (?), the myth, the motion capture character played by the best in the business Andy Serkis. We have seen concept art of Maz, a stolen shot of Luke, but nothing has been seen of Snoke. JJ and Lucasfilm are keeping him under wraps for now only releasing his name and the sound of his voice. So what can we expect from this new villain? more “Who is Snoke?”
Today Entertainment Weekly released new info on our new favorite bad guy Kylo Ren. The most important part being he took his name from a group called the “Knights of Ren”. So what was his name before? Are the Knights still around? Are they Sith or something else? Let’s dive into the spoilers and piece this together…
