Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Pre-release) (Spoilers)
- Thread starter OldKen
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i don't think Snoke is a Sith.
My questions are.
How long was Luke missing?
How old is Kylo (character, not actor.)
How old is Rey (character, not actor.)
How can Rey do things with little to no training (or did she?) when Luke struggled with force pulling at lightsaber from 3 feet away in Empire.
I have more, but that's the few I have now. And I know the ages timeline of all the other Star Wars films by heart,
How long was Luke missing?
How old is Kylo (character, not actor.)
How old is Rey (character, not actor.)
How can Rey do things with little to no training (or did she?) when Luke struggled with force pulling at lightsaber from 3 feet away in Empire.
I have more, but that's the few I have now. And I know the ages timeline of all the other Star Wars films by heart,
robn1
Master Member
I got the feeling that when Ren was probing her mind she got a look into his. She learned a bit about him and something about herself as well.
They'd destroyed the new Death Star and the Emperor and Vader were dead. That deserved a moment. But the Empire was more than the Emperor. There was a vast bureaucracy and a huge military running near martial law. That's gonna take a while to chip away at. In Aftermath, we see the Stormtroopers roll into Monument Plaza on Imperial Center right after the Emperor's statue got pulled down and they open fire on the mob. In Shattered Empire, the day after the Battle of Endor, the Rebels have to go out again to tackle the first bit of mop-up, and learn from the intel gathered in the op that the Emperor had contingency plans, and Our Heroes barely manage to prevent Imperial forces from laying waste to Naboo. The main story of Aftermath picks up three months later, the Empire is more on the ropes, but they've shifted more to the Rim and the Alliance is trying to track down which planets they're drawing support from and put a stop to it, while also liberating other worlds that had been subjugated under the Empire and declaring a New Republic in the process. And all that is before the Battle of Jakku, the aftermath of which we see in TFA -- multiple crashed Star Destroyers, as well as one crashed Super Star Destroyer.
I find it amusing and ironic that the roles reversed: The Rebellion gained legitimacy, and the Empire had to retreat to the backwaters and work in secret to build up to overthrowing their enemies.
I don't get the impression at all that the First Order is bigger than the Empire. Vader's Death Squadron -- squadron -- in Empire had at least half a dozen Star Destroyers and a Super Star Destroyer command ship. The Empire controlled hundreds of worlds with a vast military machine. I have a feeling there may be not much more (if any) to the First Order than what we saw on Starkiller Base. Which, that "new Death Star" wasn't a constructed space station like the the actual Death Stars, but a planet converted. We also have no idea how long that conversion had been going on. The origin point for that planet is exactly where Ilum was on the old galactic maps, and the other reference planets are in the same places as before, so presumably they are one and the same. Considering it's where the Jedi got their preferred lightsaber control crystals, and the Emperor knew about it since it's where they mined the huge crystals to amplify the Death Stars' superlasers, it's entirely possible the conversion started back right after the Clone Wars, and was so secret only the Imperial personnel in charge of the project knew -- and may have used that to kick-start the First Order.
Backstory tends to only lightly get touched on, at most, in the actual films. But I do definitely expect to learn more about him in the future Episodes, as well as forthcoming novels and comics.
I hope we do, too, in some medium. As she says, "there's a story to that, but for another time."
Well, he and Leia blame themselves for sending him to Luke's academy instead of keeping him home with his folks (or, possibly, going with). There could definitely have been the "kid feeling all alone at summer camp" thing going on for Ben. Not sure how much hea learned how early, from his mom or his dad or his uncle, about his granddad. We don't know yet what he perceives Vader's mission or role or thwarted destiny to be, only that he seems to have, for reasons not yet revealed, fixated on Vader's whole "wipe out the Jedi" thing. Granddad was angsty, too. Maybe he saw something that resonated...
She wasn't really even supposed to exist. Her character started out inspired by old McQuarrie concept art for what would become Vader, for the TFA character who would become Kylo. But they liked the look of the cool, caped, shiny, tall Sormtrooper and it stayed in the backs of their minds. As the script developed, they thought it might be cool to insert that as a background character, an officer of some kind in the First Order. Then they thought the character deserved more depth, but didn't want to divert screen time from the story they were already polishing, so she's slated for development in future episodes. So for someone who could have been left behind as an early stage in Kylo Ren's evolution, I'm glad she's in at all, with the promise of more to come.
Nah. Everyone seems to forget we got dropped into Star Wars with zero backstory but what was in the opening crawl. Who was this scary black dude with loud breathing? What's this Senate we never see? Old Republic? Empire? Clone Wars? Lots of stuff that doesn't get explored until later films -- or that had to wait for books, comics, and other ancillary sources to pick up the threads. No flashbacks. Just filling in some blanks.
Same with the stingy junk-trader on Jakku. The technology's matured, but it's not perfect yet, and may never be. Ask yourself how many of the original cantina aliens looked like guys in rubber masks, though. Comes a point you have to acknowledge that it's fake and just roll with it.
Yes and no. From the dialogue, he didn't have any hope there was any o Ben left in Kylo. He risked it for Leia, and for the slim chance she was right. And he came close. Adam Driver deserves a lot of credit for his acting ability. I noticed to good effect how his voice utterly changed depending on whether he was in the groove of the Kylo persona he'd crafted for himself, versus when he was distracted by his inner conflict and we saw the confused, in-over-his-head kid come out. I had hoped, against all spoilers, that this might be a "Dirty Harry" moment -- that Kylo/Ben would hesitate, that the base would start to go up and they ran their separate ways, but the seed of doubt would have been watered. Then the next time they ran into each other, like in Episode VIII, it would go differently. Like in said film, when Harry Callahan did his "do you feel lucky, punk?" speech with a bank robber, and pulled the trigger on an empty chamber, only to repeat it at the climax with the serial killer, and boom-dead. Give us the moment of tension, then feel that Han's safe, only to turn around and do it for realz later.
He was injured, she had plenty of experience with her staff (and used similar forms at first), then started besting him when she got angry -- just like Luke was beating the snot out of the much more experienced Vader in ROTJ when he gave into his anger and started going Dark Side. Thankfully the planet started tearing itself apart, or she probably would have killed him, and that probably would have meant bad things for her character. As far as Force abilities...? I agree with others who point to Kylo interrogating her, when she pushes back against his mind probe and apparently makes it two-way. She sees his fear and probably gleans a couple entry level skills, like her third-time's-the-charm mind trick, and her redirecting the saber from Kylo to her.
In Aftermath, when the establish the New Republic, they immediately mae an emphasis on de-militarizing. They want to resolve conflict through diplomacy, rather than force. They don't want to make the mistake of the Empire of trying to make everyone behave, rather than resolving the underlying issues. We don't know yet how the apparent New Republic military seems to have split off from the government -- even though, if Hux is to be believed, the New Republic tacitly supports the Resistance's actions against the Imperial Remnant and the First Order. And yes, I like the irony that the Imperialists are now the ones skulking out in the fringes on hidden bases and striking against the strong central government.
No. One o the things I like is that they're paying more attention lately to the non-Jedi Force-using traditions that will have grown up in the galaxy. Even the Sith, presuming they don't overwrite that part of the EU (which I doubt, as references are already making it into the new Marvel Star Wars comic), became a power when they were taken over by and interbred with the exiled/rage-quit Fallen Jedi from the Second Great Schism. All the Jedi/Sith stuff has been like the Catholic/Protestant violence of the Middle Ages -- doctrinal differences in just one Force-using tradition. The Story Group oversaw the now-Legends Complete Guide to Warfare, so I expect the content to make it into the canon over time. And one of the things I like about that book is it's references to things taken from George's early notes, put in as either ancient sects or obscure cults or whatever: The Legions of Lettow, the original Jedi-Bindu monks who split over the question of whether they should get involved out in the galaxy or stay home in quiet contemplation, and so on. The Knights of Ren appear to be another one of those, and I'm looking forward to seeing what's revealed about them and about Snoke in the upcoming Episodes.
--Jonah
cboath
Master Member
They're good questions....
Ren looks to be maybe late 20's based on appearance (the only thing we have to go on right now). By the same token, Rey is 20ish give or take.
In order for Ren to have learned enough and become good enough to go darkside, to the point of his parents essentially thinking he's dead...20ish when that happened. Using that, you wouldn't think Luke had been gone more than 10 years. Coould be less than that. Hard to believe it'd be any longer.
The only part that got me is that - as they lay it out - Ren goes dark side and wipes out the remaining students (if there were any) and Luke just up and leaves? Makes him come off as a majore ****** to unleash a massive dark side user on the galaxy and bail...Gotta think there's a whole lot more to that. Again, Presumably, if Rey is his kid, he's got to hide to keep her safe I suppose. Can't be near her or she'd be easily found.
More a cold war allegory. With the First Order being the USSR, USA being the Republic and the Resistance being the Mujahadeen.
At least that's what I got from the Visual Dictionary today.
joshvanrad
Sr Member
He discussed that in an interview. That was just a soundbite from ROTJ with some editing to add in his voice through FX. It was recorded specifically for the trailer.
n0regret5
Sr Member
I thought this might happen, and I'm disappointed. Yes there were some off things in the movie but I thought it was incredible the way they've managed to tie 30 years together. I guess with any fandom there's multiple rabid fans who just can't get over the originals.
jkno
Legendary Member
I'm a HUGE Original Trilogy fan. I don't like the Prequels. And I like TFA. Not comparable to OT, but I like it. Still I will only collect OT Imperials like before, even when Rogue One comes. I know TFA has its own problems, but I'm finally glad to see a true SW movie.
DARKSIDE72
Sr Member
I took it as when Kylo attempts to get into Rays head the FORCE is awakened in her, she gets into his head instead and it scares the crap out of him as she is more powerful than he. Proven again when she grabs the saber from the snow and kicks his rear.
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