We’ve been hearing for a long time that Rogue One will be unique in that it will contain no Jedi. It will focus strictly on military forces in the Star Wars galaxy. However, now that we are almost a month away, does this still hold up? Read on for more, and beware of spoilers.
Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight, Brother to a Princess, savior of the Rebellion, Jedi Master and ultimately Myth. What is he now? Rumor coming from filming and leaks has painted two different pictures for who Luke has become and today we’re going break down what has been leaked and what we think it actually means.
Way back in Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, fans got a teaser trailer for Rogue One. Not much was presented in the way of detail, but we did get a glimpse of the Death Star in the atmosphere of a jungle planet. If you haven’t seen this teaser, you can see it here. What struck me as odd back then was the fact that the teaser opened with the famous Obi Wan Kenobi quote from A New Hope:
For more than a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the gaurdians of peace and justice for the old Republic. Before the dark times. Before the Empire.
As a brief aside, the amount of time “a thousand generations” seems odd. Why not give the time in terms of years? This quote is most likely a reference to the biblical verse Deuteronomy 7:9, which reads
“Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations…”
This quote in this trailer seemed strange to me for two reasons. First, because it makes reference to the Jedi in a teaser for a movie in which there are no Jedi. Second, it made reference to a time long before the events of Rogue One. The saving grace is the last part “Before the Empire” when the Death Star comes to view.
However, when we started to see elements of the history of the Jedi in subsequent trailers, it started to give me the impression that this quote could be even more poignant. We got this huge Jedi Statue in the latest trailer, in sort of a blink-and-you-miss-it moment that most people I’ve talked to missed it the first time they saw it. Here is a lightened version in case you missed it:
The other key point was an interview with Donnie Yen talking about the fact that his character is from Jedha. According to Donnie Yen, the moon Jedha is where they made the first light saber:
.@DonnieYenCT reveals connection between planet Jeddah & light sabers! #RogueOne #StarWars #SWCE pic.twitter.com/RhAxe6O3vk
— ExtraTV (@extratv) July 17, 2016
OK, so he says this is the place where the use resources to build, make light saber. I take this he is saying it is where they made the first lightsaber. Otherwise, why mention it? Coupled with the name as obviously similar to Jedi, it is clear that this moon is the location of the origin of the Jedi in the new canon.
If we look at the old canon, there is a planet called Tython from which the Je’daii order originated in the comic book Dawn of the Jedi.In the comic book the concepts of the Ashla and Bogan were introduced, which have only recently been reused in Rebels as names for the Light and Dark sides of the Force. The Je’daii originated about 26,000 BBY, which explain the “a thousand generations” part because you might say a generation is about 26 years (depending on how you define it). It’s possible that Tython has now been changed to Jedha in the new canon. On the planet Tython were 9 pyramids that were actually space ships that collected Force-sensitives from planets throughout the galaxy.
It is clear that they won’t go down this road in Rogue One in any sort of backstory, because parts of it don’t seem to translate well to the big screen. I could see the pyramids that are space ships working, but in the comic, they sort of flew around the galaxy collecting Force sensitives, which just wouldn’t fit with my head canon view of how they would play this out on the big screen. However i believe we can expect to see more of the Legends stories as partially canon especially as we go further and further back in time. We know that whatever the battle was the ended on Jakku 1000 years previous marks the change from the “Old Republic” to the PT era Republic. Based on this we can also speculate that the Jedi’s role in the republic was changed and many of their old base of operations were abandoned. This leads to Ahch-to being lost and Jedha becoming a mecca instead of home for the Jedi.
The big question is, how much backstory of the Jedi will we get? Will they actually go into describing how the Jedi came to be in this film? I would say that there will be many opportunities to do so. Gareth Edwards described Jedha is the Jedi’s Mecca. If we see this fact portrayed on film, we might get to see some of the followers of the Force (Church of the Force?) discuss the origins of the Jedi on this moon. Chirut Imwe is from the moon, so he could certainly say something about the history of the Jedi, perhaps to Baze.
The other thing that would be a fantastic opportunity is to connect to The Force Awakens and Episode VIII. This is because Luke is searching for the First Jedi Temple. There is a good chance that the beehive huts on Ahch-To are in fact this temple. So there is a fantastic opportunity to make mention about the first Jedi on Jedha leaving that moon to go to Ahch-To to build this temple. They could even only mention it in general terms like “the ancient Jedi left Jedha a far corner of the galaxy to build a temple…” or something like that to keep it general.
Going back to the statue, the question is, why was it knocked down and buried? At first, I might think this is because of the Empire tearing things down and removing any memory of the Jedi. This is possible, but look at how deep the statue is in the sand. Perhaps the impact of being knocked down pushed it into the sand, causing it to be partially buried. The other possibility is because this statue being on the ground is from a time much much older than the Empire. Which is it? I think it must be the first situation. I think the statue was in fact built in more recent times as a monument to the Jedi, on this moon the “Mecca” of the Jedi. This is because it just doesn’t make sense that the first Jedi would build this huge statue before they would build their first temple! That is mixed-up priorities! Furthermore, such a huge statue doesn’t seem like something the Jedi, let alone the first Jedi, would do. It is too bombastic. Therefore, I think this statue was built much later by followers of the Force on Jedha. I suspect it may be from the “Old Republic” time era and was knocked down during the conflict that destroyed Jakku and the Sith 1000 years before.
We may not get the detail we are talking about here but I do expect that we will get some of the history of the Jedi and this planet. As we’ve discussed before History matters in the new canon whether its places, groups, or the nature of the Force and Rogue One was introduced to us with a hint of that history. It won’t be focus obviously but the location of Jedha is not by accident and fits with every other piece of new canon. Until next week May the Force be with you.
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The novelization of The Force Awakens is one of the few mentions of the Whills in any canonical Star Wars content. Apart from a few mentions here and there, they remain mysterious. But what information does this quote provide for the future of the sequel trilogy? Let’s take a look.
Hello, and welcome to another edition of the Spoiled Blue Milk Weekly Star Wars Recap. You might say that this has been one of the slowest weeks in a long time. It’s kind of hard to believe in fact. You’d think at this point, just 66 days until Rogue One, we’d have more leaks and news. The trailers are certainly getting very close. Nevertheless, we’ve managed to find a few stories out there that we think you’ll enjoy. Possible spoilers below.
Episode VIII finished principle shooting in July and has moved into post production and editing. This is the time frame that led to many of the leaks from TFA and we are expecting more. However we have gotten a few already, seems like more than we have on Rogue One, and today we’re going to explore those. Potential Spoilers ahead.
For most people there are two Star Wars: the big trilogy movies and everything else. In the old Lucasfilm, that was pretty much true; anything in the EU could and would be ignored by Lucas himself. Nothing they did mattered to Universe in which the Trilogy films were created. Under the new Lucasfilm this has changed and that means Rebels is much more important than just a kids cartoon. Let’s look at what that can tell us about what we can expect from Rebels this year.
With the recent release of The Prequels Strike Back documentary, I’ve been thinking about the “Ring Theory”. If you haven’t seen the documentary yet, I suggest you dish out the $3 and rent it for a couple days. Beyond the prequels, this documentary puts forth one of the most intelligent readings of both the prequels and the original trilogy I’ve seen. It is known that one of the first inspirations of this documentary was the Ring Theory. After starting the documentary, they realized there was so much more to talk about, and they definitely went beyond the ring theory. Now that TFA is out, I’d like to take a moment to ponder how the sequel trilogy fits into the broader structure of the Star Wars saga.
more “The Second Ring: Revisiting the Ring Theory with hidden parallels”
A recent clip previewing for Star Wars Rebels emerged on the web, showing Kanan talking to a brand new character to Star Wars: the Bendu. Although we’ve never seen this character in any TV or movie, the concept of the Bendu goes way back. Let’s take a moment to see where the Bendu came from, and where they could be going.
Ten days ago Pablo Hidalgo from the Lucasfilm story group unleashed a series of tweets about the nature of the force. Its been going over in my mind ever since. To me it reveals so much about the Prequels, Orginal trilogy and the Sequels and what role the Jedi played. I’m going to get into it here.
Rogue One will be released in just 3 months from today! Hard to believe it’s coming so fast. Meanwhile, we’ll have a new season of Rebels to tie us over starting next week. It’s a great time to be a Star Wars fan. Now, I would like to take a moment to ask the question of where the protagonist, Jyn Erso is from. Potential spoilers in what follows, so be careful!
The end of Season 2 of Rebels left fans with a lot of questions about the outcome of Ahsoka’s story. What happened to her? We’ve recently got a little bit of info about where she may have ended up, but don’t expect a concrete answer. The answer is a bit abstract, but very intriguing. Possible spoilers for Rebels below, so be careful!
There seems to be an underlying trend in all the new Star Wars, no matter the media, and that is exploring the ancient history and culture of the Galaxy. This is not shoved down our throats as the main arc in any story but it also isn’t exactly subtle. Today we’re going to explore examples of this and what it means for future stories.
When Mads Mikkelsen was cast in Rogue One most people got pretty excited. We figured him for a prominent role most likely a villain. We have learned that this isn’t true, he is not a villain and it is unlikely that his role is very large. It will still be very important though. Lets look into who he is and what we expect in this year’s Rogue One.
At the end of the Revenge of the Sith, we saw a little bit of a different Darth Vader. For it was right after the death of his wife Padme, and the presumed death of his unborn children. He let out a much maligned “NoooOOOooooo!”, and for the remainder of the movie quietly walked and folded his arms until the end. The question is, will we see this solemn, low-energy Vader, or will we see the Vader from A New Hope, who is full of intensity and determination?
Despite Rogue One being shrouded in mystery most people have had the basic plot down from the beginning. Rebels lead by Jyn Erso steal the plans to the death star. But what if that isn’t exactly how it goes down? more “A Rogue Plot”
Happy Friday, Star Wars fans! We’re here to take a first look at the new character Moroff in Star Wars Rogue One. Proceed with caution, as there could be potentially spoilery speculation below.
After writing an article on Snoke recently I started to think about some of the ideas that came from them. Namely that Snoke is from an older group of Darkside practitioners that monitored the Galaxy from the Unknown Regions. This got me thinking what exactly “The First Order” means. Lets explore it shall we.
Before TFA was released there was quite a bit “Disney is going to ignore the prequels” talk. Some considered that a good thing some a bad. We now know that this just isn’t true, Rebels has brought back several Clone Wars characters and comics and novels have also delved into the prequels. Now with Saw Gerrera joining the live action in Rogue One we have a definite link from the prequel era on the big screen. Let’s dive into what makes Saw the best fit for this and why we are so excited to see him on the big screen.
It’s increasingly amazing how Lucasfilm and Diseny have kept such tight wraps on their current projects. Compared to This time last year with all the news and leaks that we had on The Force Awakens, we know next to nothing about Rogue One. There are a few new planets in this one, and we are starting to get a trickle of information about them. I think perhaps the most interesting is Jedha, which we’ll talk about today. There could be potential spoilers below, so tread carefully.
Continuing our series on our new characters today we will be figuring out what is really up with Rey. We’ll look at theories discussing her past, who she’s related to, and what we think we’ll see for her arc. Like our article on Kylo and our articles on Snoke this will be a mix of review of other fans’ theories and our own original ideas. Potential Spoilers ahead.
Another week another recap. Not a lot of new stories this week but what we do have focuses on Future Tv projects and Rogue One news. We expect Rogue One will be front and center until December so get hyped! Spoilers Ahead
Star Wars Episode VIII is of course the highly anticipated and untitled follow-up to the enormously successful Star Wars: The Force Awakens. TFA is the movie that dominated fans’ minds and the box office, so its follow up has some high expectations. One question on my mind is: how will it begin exactly? How do you kick off the most anticipated sequel since Empire Strikes Back?
After writing about Snoke last week I got to thinking about the other new characters (Kylo, Rey, Finn and Poe) and where exactly they come from; Parentage, history, and what that means for the future. We’re going to highlight of one character each Wednesday for the next few weeks putting together what we know and what we suspect. As always possible spoilers ahead.
Yeah, that’s right, Star Wars fans! This is our 50th weekly recap. Since do this thang every Monday, that means in two weeks we will have been doing this for 1 year! Time flies when you’re having fun. This week seems like a drought compared to the deluge we’ve been having after Celebration Europe. Let’s check out the news.
The recent Star Wars novels have dug a pretty deep rabbit hole. Hard to tell how far it goes. We’re looking at Snoke this week and examining some theories from around the web. Today, I’d like to take a look at the Shadow Council and related factions, and see if we can connect the dots to anything pointing to that mysterious figure: Snoke.
Snoke, Leader of the First Order, seducer of Ben Solo to the Darkside, and… well that’s about all we really know isn’t it? I mean we know he’s not human but humanoid, he saw the Rise and Fall of the Empire and he has force abilities. There have been a TON of theories about who Snoke is from Anakin to Palpatine to Plaguies and for the most part they are terrible. However there is one that might not be and it follows along with my thinking as of late. Lets dig in and warning possible spoilers ahead.
When The Clone Wars cartoon was ended after Disney bought Lucasfilm, it left a couple of threads unfinished. What happens to Maul and the Dark Saber? What happens to Ahsoka after Order 66? Over the last two seasons of Rebels we’ve learned a bit about this with Maul returning and Ahsoka turning out to be Fulcrum in addition to getting to know new characters. Based on the trailer and announcements from Star Wars Celebration Europe we know the Rebels development team is going to continue to develop those stories as well as try to bring legends back, specifically Thrawn. Let’s now explore how Rebels Season 3 will resurface these questions and expand the Star Wars universe. more “Rebels Expanding the Universe”
It’s interesting to compare the Force-powers that are used by Jedi in the Prequel trilogy compared to the Original Trilogy. On the whole, Jedi are more aggressive in their moves in the prequels. Force-pushes all over the place, throwing lightsabers into enemies. When we look at Luke in the OT, apart from a few Force-chokes, Luke seems to stick to Yoda’s rule that a “Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack”.
What kind of Force-powers will Luke have in Episode VIII? Will it be the same old stuff that we saw in the OT, or will he do some new and amazing stuff? Let’s take a look at all the rumors we have about Luke, see if there are any patterns in the Force-powers that he is rumored to have. As usual, there are possible SPOILERS for Episode VIII, so proceed with caution.
As more and more Rogue One news comes out we have more and more questions. Today we’re talking about whatever happened to the Death troopers in the Original Trilogy or why don’t we see U-wings in ANH and other questions like that. Lets look at what we have that is new and why they possibly never show up again.
Hello, Star Wars fans! Welcome back to another edition of SpoiledBlueMilk. You know, I’m still reeling from the news that a Clone Wars character, Saw Gerrera, will be in Rogue One! This realization opened up a lot of possibilities in terms of what other characters will be in Rogue One. I want to take a moment and contemplate a few recent revelations about characters that may show up in Rogue One and further connect this movie to Star Wars TV and movies. Potential spoilers below, so proceed with caution.
Greetings, Star Wars fans! We’ve had a relatively quiet week this week compared to last week when we got a huge onslaught of Rogue One news and information. It all came in the form of several EW articles. We’re on the verge of what is expected to be a ton of new information at the upcoming Star Wars Celebration starting July 15th. This new information will be for both Episode VIII and Rogue One, as well as for Rebels and I’m sure a lot of other Star Wars properties. Nevertheless, there are still a few items that we found out this week on Rogue One, and many of them may give us some clues as to what news we can look forward to at Celebration.
Vader, if there is a more iconic original villain in movie history you’d hard pressed to prove it. The all black costume combined with the height and the voice of James Earl Jones makes him menacing in a way that is next to indescribable. The calm controlled evil Vader showed throughout the original trilogy made him a next to irredeemable character that eventually was redeemed. Now we know we get more live action Vader in Rogue One and I couldn’t be giddier or more apprehensive. Today we’ll explore what we think we’re getting and why, if we’re right, it will only help the legend of Vader.
Greetings, Star Wars fans! Today, we now have some new information on Rogue One that we can actually sink our teeth into. What a difference. We’ve been through some ups and downs with rumors of reshoots etc, so it feels so good to actually have something concrete. One of the characters that we now have enough to start saying something about is Chirrut Imwe, played by Donnie Yen. Let’s take a look at the latest info on this character quite unlike anything we’ve seen in Star Wars.
I woke up today wishing I had more Rogue One news and then boom Anthony Breznican at Ew.com uploads this story about this week’s cover all about Rogue One. Then about two hours later he drops another article with 10 new characters that names 9 and leaves us wondering about Forrest Whitaker’s identity, who is someone we know which we find out about in his last article of the day! Lets jump into it and look at what Anthony has brought us today(more to come too!)
Leia has always been one of my favorite characters, not just in Star Wars but overall. I get excited about seeing Leia on screen again and it was one of my personal high points to see her in TFA. Over the past two months we’ve gotten a couple of reports of what Leia will be up to in VIII and I want to explore what that means for the character, the Resistance and the film itself. Potential SPOILERS for Episode VIII below, so read on at your own discretion.
Greetings, Star Wars fans! Most of you know that kyber crystals are the heart of lightsabers. These special crystals amplify energy, thus producing the plasma blade. They are also deeply rooted in Jedi tradition. Luminara Unduli went as far as to say to her apprentice Barriss Offee about the crystals:
“The crystal is the heart of the blade. The heart is the crystal of the Jedi. The Jedi is the crystal of the Force. The Force is the blade of the heart. All are intertwined. The crystal, the blade, the Jedi. You are one.” (Star Wars: Clone Wars Chapter 14)
But what role have kyber crystals played in the broader Star Wars galaxy? Read on for more, and beware of potential SPOILERS for Rogue One and Episode VIII.
One of the most troubling moments in Revenge of the Sith was the death of Padme. In the movie, we are only given the following:
Medically, she’s fine. We don’t know why, she’s lost the will to live
So why did she die exactly? For many people this part of the movie seemed a bit like a cop-out, and were still left wondering how she died exactly. Anakin as Vader is later troubled to find out she died. He was convinced that she was alive and could “feel” that she was alive. So what happened? Was it the Force-choke? Was it a broken heart? Let’s examine some of the theories.
Greetings Star Wars fans! It’s been one heck of a week for rumors about Rogue One. We already covered the rumor about the delays and why we think it isn’t a big deal. Now today, I want to talk about other aspects of Rogue One, in particular the ending and possible cameo rumors that have emerged. Possible spoilers are ahead, so continue at your own risk!
With continued leaks from Ireland on Episode VIII and publication leaks for Rogue One its easy to forget that there is another Star Wars property that is in production and will be on screen this year, Rebels. Because of this many people have overlooked the interview with Dave Filoni where he says he would want Ewan to voice Obi-wan if they bring him in. The question is when and why they would bring in Obi-wan and is it a good idea? Lets explore!
There is no question that Yoda is one of the most beloved characters in the Star Wars saga. The little green Jedi is one of the wisest and most powerful ever, and also tells us you can’t judge a book by its cover. I must admit, I’ve always been a fan of Yoda ever since I can remember, going back to ESB when I was 6 years old. Back then, I had a more vivid memory of the Yoda action figure than the actual movie, but still Yoda was a cool little dude. In this spoiler-laden speculation article we ask the question, what role will Yoda play in Episode VIII?
The Knights of Ren began as one of the most intriguing aspects of The Force Awakens. When JJ originally told us about the existence of the Knights, eyes widened across the Star Wars fan community. Who are they? Where did they come from? While we can’t answer these questions today, we can say how and where the Knights seem to come to an end. Spoilers after the jump.
With the recent release of Bloodline, we have gotten numerous bits of information about the galaxy far far away in the times leading up to The Force Awakens. Among some of the most impactful are some ideas that pertain to Rey and her origins. Let’s explore some of the ramifications here for a bit. As usual, consider yourself warned as the following contains spoilers for the novel Bloodline.
While the rest of the Star Wars world has focused on Rian Johnson’s contributions to Bloodline, I have continued to ponder what the First Order’s plans to take over galaxy were. I mentioned this in the article on Bloodline we did last week and I it has been on my mind ever since. The more I think about the tiny hints in the book the more I realize that the First Order had plans that much more Machiavellian than we ended up seeing in The Force Awakens. Stop reading now to avoid spoilers from Bloodline.
Lets start off with a warning, this will be a spoiler filled article on the novel Bloodline, so if you have’t read it and don’t want to read spoilers then run away now lil children. Still here? Then consider yourself warned. Last Friday we did an article reviewing what we expected to see in Bloodline and how it would relate. I think we did pretty well, though there were also a few new pieces of information I didn’t expect.
more “Bloodline: The expected, the unexpected, and new info!”
Happy Star Wars Day, Star Wars fans! What a year we’ve had since the last one. It’s also been somewhat decent of a week for leaks and news. This is the first time, that I can remember, that we’ve had multiple lines of evidence connecting around one singular item. Once we reach a critical mass of information about a Star Wars film, then the theories start flying fast and furious.
With the eminent release of Bloodline by Claudia Gray we have been fascinated by what we already know will change several hypothesis we’ve had as well as many others. The first three chapters of Bloodline have been released and based on the information in them and on earlier reviews I am going to speculate on what this means for our hypothesis, how we understood The Force Awakens, and how this information will inform our understanding of Episode VIII. Potential Spoilers ahead.
At the end of The Force Awakens, we got a glimpse of some stone huts on Ahch-To. Rey walks past them after she traverses the hills on the island on her way to find Luke. As it turns out, filming has begun one week ago for scenes in a re-created version of the huts. more “The mystery of the stone “beehive huts” on Ahch-To”
Star Wars fans were faced with a bit of a mystery at the very end of the Star Wars Rebels Season 2 finale. We got a glimpse of a owl-like creature, a “convor“, that was perched above on a structure watching Darth Vader walk away from his fight with Ahsoka Tano.