Star Wars Spoilers Thread [Spoilers]

So here's my review: 100% a Star Wars film which belongs with the original trilogy.

It's a transitional film, but it does it well. The new generation is really good.

I think the major death was kinda signposted a bit. You knew it was coming long before it happened. I felt worse for Chewie, but he, Rey, and BB8 make a great team.

Is this the first Star Wars film where nobody gets their hand cut off?

Luke lives in Ireland, eh?

Question: WHY was there a map to Luke, and why was it split into two? I feel like I missed something. For that matter, why a map and not just some coordinates? Seems like a random puzzle set up for the sake of it.

 

[Ovinomancer]

Fair point. Of course Leia is supposed to be very strong with the Force as well, but it probably didn't occur to her to try and use it. It probably did help her resist the interrogation, just like Rey.

But again, just as there are similarities, there are differences. The various bits are mixed up enough with a bunch of new things to make it distinctly its own story. It never felt like I was watching a remake or a reboot. It was only after the movie was over that I started thinking about the similarities.

Really Rey isn't like Leia getting captured, it is more like Luke getting captured.

And I'm pretty sure it was Unkar Plutt's hand that was holding Rey back. I didn't notice it the first time I saw the movie, but the second time I though it looked like his. I could be wrong of course, it was just a quick look.

I paid attention in my second viewing. It was Unkar Plutt's hand and voice.

As for Rey escaping, she did that on her own, and was doing a very credible job of eluding the very motivated search parties. While not explicit, I credit that with her growing up crawling inside Imperial starships, and the 1st Order very clearly using the same designers for their facilities. Also, while it's not ever mentioned in the story, when Han/Chewie/Rey/Finn party storm the oscillator, Rey and Finn split off to open the blast doors for Han and Chewie to get inside. If you pay attention to that scene, it's a perfect mirror for the first shot of Rey pulling the same part out of the Star Destroyer wreck on Jakku.

 

[billd91]

Fair point. Of course Leia is supposed to be very strong with the Force as well, but it probably didn't occur to her to try and use it. It probably did help her resist the interrogation, just like Rey.

Maybe, but she wasn't strong in the force at the time the movie was made. That was a later invention.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Well, I don';t think he did leave Rey with him. In the flashback of child-Rey, she's crying as a ship leaves, and there is a hand on her arm, holding her back. I think that hand is human, and there's a voice that I believe is Max Von Sydow, not Pegg - I think she was left with Lor San Tekka, who watches over her from a distance, to avoid drawing attention to her. Her dealing with Unkar Plutt (Pegg's character) then wasn't guardianship. That was just business to get her food.

And then it becomes more clear why Tekka had the map...

I have heard apocrypha/rumor that Tekka is a religious follower of the Force (as opposed to a *user* of it. Maz Kanata might also be a follower). It may be he was a scholar that Luke turned to when searching for old temples. So, perhaps it is less that Luke left the map with Tekka, as Tekka gave the map to Luke, and thus had the same information to give to Poe.

I like this.

That's my guess. I'm also wondering if the word "family" is used in a broad sense here, meaning her "jedi trainee family", and that memory is what's been suppressed in her by Luke with a mental block to protect her, leaving her with just a vague familial impression.

So, is there a specific reason multiple people think she's a former student of Luke's?

I can't think of anything that even vaguely kinda maybe comes close to implying it a little, so I'm confused.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Maybe, but she wasn't strong in the force at the time the movie was made. That was a later invention.

Do any of the movies ever suggest that she is strong in the force, as opposed to just force sensitive to an unknown degree?

 

[Valador]

That's one ugly, bulbous, Unkar-Plutt-looking human!

Regarding Tekka and the map - doesn't the opening crawl imply he has only recently discovered it?

-Hyp.

I agree with you. I noticed this as well on my second viewing.

Also, you can sorta see it in this video at roughly the 50 second mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Bg3NQes8o

Its fuzzy, but you can tell that's not a human.

 

[Morrus]

So, is there a specific reason multiple people think she's a former student of Luke's?

I can't think of anything that even vaguely kinda maybe comes close to implying it a little, so I'm confused.

I can't speak for anybody else, but for me it's just a hunch.

 

[dd.stevenson]

Rey makes a comment on the Falcon, to Finn, that she needs to go back. Something along the lines of 'they'll come back for me.' So that establishes that she's waiting for someone to return for her. Then, in the force echo images, we see her being left on Jakku with Simon Pegg as a ship flies away and she screams, 'no, come back!' Clearly, these are the people she's waiting for. Then, immediately after the force echo imagery, Maz Kanata tells her that she needs to let go of her belief that "they" are ever going to come back for her and she needs to accept her destiny with the lightsaber.

Yes, I noticed all this groundwork, but it clearly wasn't enough to carry me through the scene. I wanted to share Rey's moment of doubt as she rejects the hero's call, and I wasn't able to because I didn't know the first thing about who she was waiting for, or why she was waiting for them.

Compare that with Finn: even though I did't love his decision to hop a freighter for the far reaches of space as I felt he was veering toward stupid on demand, I still clearly understood WHAT he was running from, because I had seen the bad guys in all their nefarious glory. I could join him at the crossroads, and contemplate the consequences of accepting or rejecting the hero's call.

I thought it was made pretty clear that she was waiting for family, who left her there as a child. There's no "message" to leave with someone else - if she goes wandering for any length of time, her family will show up, not find her, and likely leave again.

I'm not sure it was made very clear at all--I was listening for any indication one way or the other, and I don't believe we were even assured it was her family. Just "someone" and "somebody." Perhaps I'm mistaken--but the fact that I'm not 100% certain means the exposition wasn't even close to clear enough for me.

 

[Eltab]

Maybe, but she (Leia) wasn't strong in the force at the time the movie was made. That was a later invention.

Something I pulled out of the SW4 scene between Han ("there's no all-powerful mystic energy field guiding MY destiny") and Kenobi ( -covers his mouth with his hand and suppresses a laugh- ) was that Han is also a low-grade Force-adept, totally untrained of course, and "the famous Solo luck" is actually his inexpert tugs and yanks at the Force around him.

A little later on, Kenobi's Force-presence swamps both Han and Luke: Vader "I feel something ... that I haven't sensed since I was in the presence of my old master..." All three men are hiding together in a smuggling compartment within the Millenium Falcon.

 

[Umbran]

So, is there a specific reason multiple people think she's a former student of Luke's?

Mostly because it makes a lot of sense out of a large heap of coincidences. She *just happens* to be a pretty powerful force sensitive, and *just happens* to be in the same neighborhood as Lor San Tekka. And it makes her very sudden rise to power more plausible in the minds of many. And because when missing family is a major point, it is usually because they are story-relevant. And it makes Luke's lightsaber calling to her seem more natural, if she's part of the same line of training, and so on.

There's nothing concrete, but there are points left for you to wonder about, so people will posit theories.

 

[MarkB]

Do any of the movies ever suggest that she is strong in the force, as opposed to just force sensitive to an unknown degree?

Yoda and Obi-Wan consider her to be the galaxy's last hope if Luke is lost. That suggests she's more than just a mild talent.