Star Wars Episode 7

[Asura]

VERY spoiler-heavy post!

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- what happened to the rest of Luke's students?
- how did Maz Kanata get Luke's lightsaber?
- why did that First Order trooper have a stun tonfa a la Grevious' bodyguards, and why did we not see more of them?
- where did Supreme Leader Snoke come from and why is he force sensitive?
- who are Rey's parents, are they Force sensitive? Is her father... well, you'll probably have that idea as well once you've seen the "force" flashback/flash forward sequence.
- who are the Knights of Ren, because we don't really see an awful lot about that.

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If that's the case, who's the mother?! I thought Jedi weren't supposed to have kids, or allowed to love. I guess that hypocrisy led 'young Ben' to the Dark Side!

A couple of things:

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- I think Luke's students are all dead, apart from Kylo Ren - maybe also the "Knights of Ren".
- I think he had the tonfa... Because he had one. I don't think there's much more to it.
- No idea where Snoke is from but as for "why is he force sensitive" - I get the impression it's going to be similar to the EU - force sensitive people just come to exist.
- Rey's parents are almost certainly Luke and someone else. In the EU, Luke has to form the new Jedi Order, and he works out pretty fast that one of the reasons the old one died out was because it was flawed, and the new one has to have new traditions and ideals - one of which is they're allowed to marry/have kids. I suspect the movies will go the same way.
- As above, the Knights of Ren are likely Luke's other students.

Also, as for...

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Snoke/Snoak.

- I strongly suspect that the form we've seen for him is NOT how he appears. I think they're going to do a Wizard of Oz, and that's just the image he shows. The reason for this is that Star Wars has always borrowed cinematic elements from other movies, and this seems likely considering his giant, holographic appearance.

- I also suspect the reason that Kylo Ren killed Han (narratively) is so that there will be a similar scene in IX, where he could kill Rey, but he doesn't - and that's his heel/face turn, like when Vader turned on the Emperor.

[dvdx2]

As a big star wars fan who saw the original in 77, i'd say it was abit cobblers. Some nice touches but it was essestially a remix of 4, 5 and 6 (infact the similarites where sueable). Lucas must be pi**ing himself laughing.

[Mayhem]

->Open Spoiler<-

- I think Luke's students are all dead, apart from Kylo Ren - maybe also the "Knights of Ren".
- I think he had the tonfa... Because he had one. I don't think there's much more to it.
- No idea where Snoke is from but as for "why is he force sensitive" - I get the impression it's going to be similar to the EU - force sensitive people just come to exist.
- Rey's parents are almost certainly Luke and someone else. In the EU, Luke has to form the new Jedi Order, and he works out pretty fast that one of the reasons the old one died out was because it was flawed, and the new one has to have new traditions and ideals - one of which is they're allowed to marry/have kids. I suspect the movies will go the same way.
- As above, the Knights of Ren are likely Luke's other students.

I need to rewatch the flashback/flash forward scene again... and/or slow it down to properly grasp what was shown...

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Kylo was seen slaughtering someone or some people in the rain, where the "Knights of Ren" were gathered (whom I hope we get to see more of in EP8, along with Phasma). I wasn't sure if this was meant to be Luke, as a foreshadow of what Kylo wants to do, or a flashback showing him killing Luke's other students.

The original plan for the film, so I'm led to believe, was the opening scene to be the discovery by some peasants, and lead into the future collection of Luke's lightsaber by Kaz. I don't know if some of that made it into the visions that Rey had. If not, then I'm still intrigued to know how she got the lightsaber. Also why Max von Sydow's character had the missing part of the map to Luke. He seemingly knew Luke, judging by his words, so I also hope Luke says something to explain what that is in EP8.

Snoke could be Darth Plageius, there is some similarity in the character design to the EU, and when Kylo had his "chats" with Snoke in the film, the music seemed quite like the piece used when Palpatine told Anakin about Plageius in RotS.

The transport that we see take off from Jakku when Rey was left there is practically the same type as General Leia stepped out from on Maz's planet (did we ever get the name for it?). So Rey has heavy Republic connections most likely.

[danholo]

As a big star wars fan who saw the original in 77, i'd say it was abit cobblers. Some nice touches but it was essestially a remix of 4, 5 and 6 (infact the similarites where sueable). Lucas must be pi**ing himself laughing.

Why? People like/love the new film and mostly hate the prequels. I saw the prequels once and have seen the Force Awakens already three times. Piss on that.

[nightstalker100]

I watched it yesterday in a fairly packed cinema, got chills down my spine when the music hit and text started scrolling.

Is it as good as Ep 4,5,6 probably not.

Is the Star Wars magic back? Absolutely!

It was struck a good balance between nod's to the old school and tradition but also firmly establishing the new gen. I think Kylo Ren is a great antagonist and being prone to temper tantrums reminds me that this should have been how Anakin was portrayed in the prequels.

[dvdx2]

Why? People like/love the new film and mostly hate the prequels. I saw the prequels once and have seen the Force Awakens already three times. Piss on that.

Dont get me wrong, it was ok and having slept on it, I enjoyed it more than the prequels. I liked the new bad guy, but i felt there was very little originality,with scene for scene almost played out at times; (he was pretty clever hiding that from the trailers). I had a mate with me who was fuming after it. I suppose people expected different things? The next one could be amazing though as its set up rather nicely. 3 times? Fair play to you!

[prinnysquad]

I really haven't collected my thoughts on this properly. I enjoyed it as it was on, but left the cinema feeling undernourished and slightly cheated. Far too many scenes lifted from the original, and, although they were well directed, I didn't feel wowed by the battle scenes. They weren't epic enough for me - in the last one in particular I didn't get the sense of majesty, scale, importance or intensity as the run on the Death Star.

[nakamura]

I haven't seen it but the feedback has been mostly good so that's surely a victory for Disney and co.

I think the simple fact is you are never going to better the originals because none of you are 10 anymore and can spot things like poor plot holes, bad pacing, wooden acting etc.

[prinnysquad]

Well I saw the originals when I was 15. On re-watching now I can see problems that weren't immediately apparent on my first viewings, but I don't see how that effects the criticism of the recent film being a re-tread of the original. Nor does it explain the criticism I have of the scale of the action and weight placed upon it. I still get like a giddy sap with excellent action scenes in new films at the age of 36, so it's not like I don't tune in to the magic of my inner child.

[nakamura]

The criticism of the retread is legitimate but no matter what they do they will always be compared to the original movies, and the vast majority of fans were kids when the originals came out.

Star Wars in the 70's was pretty special, warts and all. Today it's just another space movie that is lucky enough to have that nostalgia hook. No matter what they do, no matter how good, it will have been done before or will be compared to past movies.

[danholo]

Dont get me wrong, it was ok and having slept on it, I enjoyed it more than the prequels. I liked the new bad guy, but i felt there was very little originality,with scene for scene almost played out at times; (he was pretty clever hiding that from the trailers). I had a mate with me who was fuming after it. I suppose people expected different things? The next one could be amazing though as its set up rather nicely. 3 times? Fair play to you!

Don't worry... I get everything wrong. I'm not very objective when it comes to Star Wars but yes, many of the rehashes of the original trilogy were my main gripe at first but the second and third viewing that faded away.

[Team Andromeda]

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If that's the case,

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who's the mother?! I thought Jedi weren't supposed to have kids, or allowed to love. I guess that hypocrisy led 'young Ben' to the Dark Side!

There's lots of holes in the Star Wars . I thought one strike of the lightsaber was fatal and would see the body melt (like in the 1977 Star Wars) let in the following films it's seems not to be the case .

Given the force is so strong with her ...

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I'm thinking its Luke child and maybe one of the other reasons why Luke blames himself and why there's so little info on her parents and upbrining in the film and also why she's such a good pilo

t

[Tobal]

Definitely felt like the film was made more for the lapsed fans and mainstream like myself, to bring us all in ready for 8 and 9. And it worked, I didn't expect to be pulled in but found i was enjoying very moment and not because film leans heavily the original trilogy but more that the characters, the jokes, the vistas, the action and tense parts all work.

and couple of things about the film

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Ford shambling around like a zombie for his action bits definitely felt out of place but i could forgive that.

The practically of plant deathstar, how does it move into position to fire, surely it would rotate around the sun, and i assume it a winter setting to suggest some global cooling of the planet so close to the sun.

I didn't like that these new storm troopers are now kidnapped kids brainwashed to serve, felt like the heroes are now just murdering village idiots. And the silver trooper wasn't very loyal for all the previous build up, i for sure felt she would rather die than be a traitor (when turning of the shield).

I liked Lightsabre fight at the end, which i enjoyed for it not being ninja flippy crap but more physical like jousting between decent injured swordsman (shot and stabbed) vs an amateur just swinging the sabre around.

[Asura]

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The practically of plant deathstar, how does it move into position to fire, surely it would rotate around the sun, and i assume it a winter setting to suggest some global cooling of the planet so close to the sun.

I didn't like that these new storm troopers are now kidnapped kids brainwashed to serve, felt like the heroes are now just murdering village idiots. And the silver trooper wasn't very loyal for all the previous build up, i for sure felt she would rather die than be a traitor (when turning of the shield).

As for your first point, maybe you're over-thinking it. I mean how does the Death Star "move" in Episode IV? It just does.

For the other things...

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I get what you mean about the Stormtrooper thing - but I suppose the alternative is that they're killing clones, which is similarly hideous. I still prefer they do that to Episode 1's solution, though - battle droids. It's no different to Nathan Drake is the "hero" in Uncharted, but the guy's also a mass-murderer by any conventional standard. In Indiana Jones, Indiana kills people, sure - but imagine if during Raiders of the Lost Ark he personally gunned down 350 people?

The whole thing with Captain Phasna bothered me too. I assume that, being a commander, she's in a position where she knows there isn't much point in resisting because they're going to get the shield down, and the only variable is whether she's alive or dead?

Well I saw the originals when I was 15. On re-watching now I can see problems that weren't immediately apparent on my first viewings, but I don't see how that effects the criticism of the recent film being a re-tread of the original.

I can see why it would bother you. Personally, I hope that the next films will go off a bit more in their own directions, but after the many mis-steps made in the prequels, I think the creators of the film made a conscious decision to keep it "close to home" and I'm happy with that.

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There's lots of holes in the Star Wars . I thought one strike of the lightsaber was fatal and would see the body melt (like in the 1977 Star Wars) let in the following films it's seems not to be the case

Not sure how you got that impression. Right from the 1977 Star Wars, Obi-wan chops off a guy's arm in Mos Eisley Cantina and he doesn't "distintegrate". Luke gets his arm cut off and doesn't vanish. Only Obi-wan and Yoda do that, so you can see that it's a Jedi thing.

[Team Andromeda]

. Right from the 1977 Star Wars, Obi-wan chops off a guy's arm in Mos Eisley Cantina and he doesn't "distintegrate".

All that's left of that guy is/was his arm

Luke gets his arm cut off and doesn't vanish

Yeah in the sequel