My pref is still that Jyn, Baze, and Bodhi survive. Bodhi stays on to pilot the Rebellions transports and shuttles, Jyn doesn't trust the Rebellion after what they pulled with her dad and she goes off on her own, with Baze going with her as friend and protector. K-2SO and Chirrut had good and appropriate deaths. Cassian should have sacrificed himself to save Jyn, thus completing his character arc. And Red 5 -- the pilot -- should have been injured and rendered unable to fly, while his craft was damaged but repairable. That's where I stand on the films casualties.
--Jonah
Yeah, that would've been interesting. I think it would've solved the issue of "Well, now these people would be heroes, so why aren't they in A New Hope?" Although I could also see a reality where Jyn survives, stays with the Rebellion, but continues to work behind the scenes. Actually, it'd be REALLY interesting to see what would happen if she ended up working with Alliance intelligence, and constantly coming into conflict with the guy who ran that, who put out the kill order on her dad. Baze would then kinda become her "Chewbacca." Bodhi would have survived just because he'd be the one piloting their shuttle to get the hell out. Maybe he'd stay on with Jyn, just out of a sense of having bonded with her and not really trusting anyone else.
The other deaths, yeah, they were totally earned, I thought.
All that aside, I do think that you can make an argument that everyone's character arc completed in the film. They didn't
need to survive, and I do appreciate a story of tragedy from which hope springs.
And left the way open for a Jyn/Baze spin off film.
Actually...that I could do without. I mean, I can see interesting stories with her surviving, but I'd almost prefer that we not see future films. I think the side stories need to generally be one-and-done films, rather than openers for another sub-franchise. Think about it. Within the Star Wars film franchise we now have
two sub-franchises: the "episodes" and the side stories (or "Star Wars stories"). Unless and until the "episodes" end, I think they should be the focus of the films. Save the "Star Wars story" spinoff franchises for television, comics, novels, videogames, etc.
The Ghost was a nice small easter egg, wasn't "in your face" like some of the other ones. Need more of that.
Too much blatant fan service does take me out of the story. Needs to be toned down IMHO for the next films.
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Yeah, I liked some of the fan service (e.g. the unused footage of Red and Gold leaders, Gen. "Barristan" Dodonna in the background), but some of it felt shoehorned in the way the prequels did (e.g. Threepio and R2, Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba).