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Now, I'm Flyin' Solo!
Ahh, Kinect Star Wars Dancing, that audio and visual representation of being digested a thousand years by the Sarlacc. By comparison, The Holiday Special would be Nobel prize in Literature worthy.
With nothing but love and respect for Tacticslion, it is with regret that we alert ALL commands, focus ALL firepower on him!
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Daniel Mindel, Director of Photography for The Force Awakens has a very cool instagram feed here.
One photo gives us a glimpse at the set built at Pinewood, featuring the snowy forest battle with John Boyega dueling Adam Driver. You can see the scale of the set, and have a look at the lightsaber props, which were glowing with real light.
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Balance to the force...
People assume this means a balanced number of force users, but maybe it's wiping the slate clean. no jedi philosophy, No Sith philosophy. The Force just is. Either extreme of no passion or all passion is not the correct path. Maybe the correct path is to use the force as needed, understand the connections, and don't use it to be an a&@&!~$.
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The Force has always been an odd duck. I don't really know if Lucas put much thought into it. (Certainly not as much as some of the fans...)
If life generates it and sustains it, as Yoda says, then would a world like Dagobah, overrun with life, have much more 'force' available for force-users to tap into, than more or less barren worlds like Hoth or Tattoine or Jakku? It would make sense, if that were the case, that the Death Star, would be a force-sparse environment as well, since it's got a bunch of people on it, but no plants or animals or eco-system (well, except for that thing that lives in the trash compactor...). And yet, the Emperor chose to live on the Death Star, at any given time AU away from any life-bearing world, and while Yoda was chilling on Dagobah, Obi-wan ended up on Tattoine.
And then there's the midichlorians nonsense. We can pretend it never happened, but if it was intended, I wonder how Lucas reconciled some organisms in your blood determining your force potency, when one of the pre-eminent force-users of that age had lost both legs and an arm, at most, and so probably had only 60% of the midichlorians he started with (and Yoda was a hobbit-sized dude, and would have less room for midichlorians than, say, Mace Windu, and, in theory, a Gamorrean force-user would have potentially tons of blood volume in which midichlorians could thrive!). It didn't seem that Anakin lost power when he lost his limbs, even if that was the logical outcome of force power stemming from stuff in your blood, and it didn't seem that the Jedi (or Sith) had any notion of strapping down people and extracting their midichlorians to inject into themselves and concentrate more force-manipulation-potential into their Jedi/Sith castes (which the Jedi might not have done, but the Sith sure as heck would have! "Wait, drinking Jedi blood will allow me to steal their power? Meat's back on the menu, boys!").
It could even go in a sort of video game direction, where cloning tanks full of midichlorians are grown and used as 'force generators' by technicians, and sold as booster shots for Jedi who need a little pick me up after force-moving stuff (or mind-jobbing people) all day.
Ugh. Veer off, Set. Midichlorians are a trap!
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Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.
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F=MA
Done.
The best way, for me, to think about Rey being more powerful than Luke is to view this from a gaming perspective. Basically Luke is a jedi from an earlier less powered edition. Then the splat books came out and all these options, etc. So the game was restarted and Rey is a Jedi from the new edition, which has been powered up so that its basic Jedi is as powerful as the earlier edition's core jedi + splat books.
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The best way, for me, to think about Rey being more powerful than Luke is to view this from a gaming perspective. Basically Luke is a jedi from an earlier less powered edition. Then the splat books came out and all these options, etc. So the game was restarted and Rey is a Jedi from the new edition, which has been powered up so that its basic Jedi is as powerful as the earlier edition's core jedi + splat books.
That's NOT how The Force works!
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The top domestic film remains "Avatar" with a $760.5 million lifetime domestic gross, but "Star Wars" is barreling through to surpass it soon and should carve through that number before Friday this week.
For context, it took "Avatar" 72 days to reach $700 million. "Star Wars" did that in 16 days.
Time to bring those overgrown half naked blue (not going to say Smu---) s to heel.
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The other difference is that Rey had basically just realized she had Force abilities and had absolutely no training or time to practice. Luke had gotten at least some basic training from Ben and had by the time of ESB at least some time to practice on his own.I think it's pretty likely we will find out in the next movie she DID have some training. The prevailing theory is that Rey was at Luke's Jedi academy as a young child receiving training. She was there when Ben / Ren betrayed Luke and killed most or all of the students. The thought is that someone (Luke?) Force blocked her memories and dropped her off on Jakku.
If true, that would explain the images she saw when she first touched Luke's lightsabre, as her memories began to come back in jumbled and confusing bits. It also explains what Kylo Ren said to her when he was probing her mind - that she sees the island in the ocean ...
Combine her naturally strong natural Force sensitivity with the early training that seems to be slowly coming back to her due to recent events, and it makes sense that by the end of the movie she's able to do some cool Jedi-like things
This is my thought. Would explain Kylo's reaction to the comment about a girl helping them escape.
I don't know how old Rey is in the movie, but guessing 18-20? I thought I also heard mention that Kylo attacked the jedi training camp 10 years ago? So that would put Rey at 8-10 years old, which fits with her age in the brief flashback I think.
IF Rey had training in the force as a small child, pretty much all the problems with Rey's hypercompetence go away, especially since we have been told in the other movies that it's easier to train a kid than an adult in the use of the Force.
It's one of those things though that should have been addressed slightly more in TFA.
I'm not saying we need to have all the answers before anything happens, but rather address the fact that her training is mysterious within the film. For example, she does something with the Force and the following exchange happens:
Finn: How'd you do that?
Rey: I don't know, but I feel like I've done it before.
Finn: Did someone teach you?
Rey: I don't remember.
That kind of exchange tells me as an audience member that the characters have unanswered questions, and so it's okay if I don't have answers for them either. It's okay to have mystery in a story, but it's nice to clearly delineate what things are supposed to be mysterious and what things aren't.
Just like the movie would have benefited from a short scene explaining the relationship between Empire-First Order and Rebellion-Republic-Resistance. I know from the talk of the deleted scenes that it was cut for pacing and character reveal impact, but they should have found a different way to tell us. An extra paragraph in the opening crawl probably would have been enough.
"The Republic has brokered an uneasy peace with the First Order,
but Leia and her allies have formed a Resistance to continue the fight."
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Balance to the force...
People assume this means a balanced number of force users, but maybe it's wiping the slate clean. no jedi philosophy, No Sith philosophy. The Force just is. Either extreme of no passion or all passion is not the correct path. Maybe the correct path is to use the force as needed, understand the connections, and don't use it to be an a&!*#%@.
There is no light side, there is no dark side, there is only The Force.
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For those reading the script, the planet at the end where Luke is found is called Ahch-to.Gesundheit
I used my alias there, because God Bless is a traditional saying after a sneeze and because Ahch-to is Hebrew for "brother."
JJ Abrams is Jewish. And there is the whole Luke and Leia dynamic.
What I did not realize until now was, Ahch-to is pronounced like ACT II, which is a neat way to transition into the next act in the trilogy.
While JJ does a good job, still the farther you can keep him from the long term story the better. Look at Lost that he was involved with. Lots of mysteries and riddles were introduced only to be abandoned and left unanswered as other mysteries and riddles are introduced. At the end it all comes down to a cork. We don't need any of that mess involved.
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So. Finn and Poe. Bromance or romance?
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The Empire Strikes Back
I loved that! A real sense of brilliance there as to what to put in and where.
Abrhams had almost nothing to do with Lost after the first few episodes. Blame Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse for that mess.
He was an executive producer. If he wasn't doing oversight, then he wasn't doing his job and if he was doing oversight than he deserves at least some of the blame for the mess it became.
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Um... You have a very simplistic and incorrect understanding of what an Executive Producer is, does, and gets credited for.Abrhams had almost nothing to do with Lost after the first few episodes. Blame Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse for that mess.He was an executive producer. If he wasn't doing oversight, then he wasn't doing his job and if he was doing oversight than he deserves at least some of the blame for the mess it became.
Shows up with a bag of money and a sharpie marker to put their name on everything?
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The issue with the Dark Side isn't that passion or ambition is morally wrong in itself. It is that the Dark Side actively rewards giving in to destructive impulses.
Imagine if there was a drug that made you feel really good every time you hit someone in the face. The other side efffect is that it gives you superpowers, but mostly it feels really good.
How could you handle that? How would you avoid becoming a monster? It might be possible to only hit people in the face who deserve it. It might be possible to only hit people in the face every once in a while so that you wouldn't get addicted. Most people couldn't do it. They might start out thinking they could, but in the end they'd just be face-punching junkies.
The light side is problematic for opposite reasons. Imagine that same drug, but in the hands of people who decided that the best way to use it without becoming junkies was to just never feel anything. They have to use the drug because there are super powered junkies running around that need to be stopped, but they are constantly, always at risk of falling prey to the negative effects of the drug. Feeling good is bad because it makes you want to feel good more. Feeling angry is bad beause it makes you ignore the consequences of using the drug. Feeling sad is bad because it makes you want to do anything you can to feel better. So the only thing they can do is emotionally neuter themselves and anyone they train. It forces the user to remove their own empathy, to the point where it becomes perfectly ok to mind control people in order to make sure that you don't have to resort to violence. That makes the only people in the world capable of fighting off the super junkies a bunch of people who are completely unable to relate to other people, and are all in danger of becoming super-junkies themelves.
The whole "bringing balance to the force" thing is a question of how the people who use this drug can learn not to feel really good every time they hurt people, while also not ignoring the part of them that allows them to relate to other people. Until someone comes up with a way to do that, there will never be anything but history repeating itself.
In my opinio the only character to come close was Jolee from KotOR.
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Imagine if there was a drug that made you feel really good every time you hit someone in the face.
It's called 'Bourbon' and already exists
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Loved that analysis Doomed Hero. Very cool. :)
That's why I'd love to see an actual grey force user on screen. In my head cannon, that's what Maz is.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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The light side is problematic for opposite reasons.
The things you list aren't problems with the light side of the Force, they're problems with the organization called the Jedi Knights. That stuff about not feeling anything was their idea, not something inherent to the Force (or even just the light side thereof).
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Aren't the Jedi encouraged to love but not form attachments?
That's like saying Jedi are encouraged to swim, but not to go near water.
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Imagine if there was a drug that made you feel really good every time you hit someone in the face. The other side efffect is that it gives you superpowers, but mostly it feels really good.
How could you handle that? How would you avoid becoming a monster? It might be possible to only hit people in the face who deserve it. It might be possible to only hit people in the face every once in a while so that you wouldn't get addicted. Most people couldn't do it. They might start out thinking they could, but in the end they'd just be face-punching junkies.
I'd hire masochists that enjoy being punched in the face and use my powers for good. Problem solved ;)
I just got an idea for a super hero character to play.
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The light side is problematic for opposite reasons.The things you list aren't problems with the light side of the Force, they're problems with the organization called the Jedi Knights. That stuff about not feeling anything was their idea, not something inherent to the Force (or even just the light side thereof).
The problem there, though, is that barring some fringe groups, the only people who channel the force are the Jedi/Sith. All manner of Force sensitive creatures have been shown over the last 40 odd years, but time and again, the bulk majority of them are only scratching the surface of the Force. Maz Kanata, as a recent example, has some sensitivity and clairvoyance, but that is nothing compared to the far reaching powers that Obi-Wan had (he felt an entire planet die, while light years away, and in arguably a different dimension of reality). Groups like the Inquisitors (arguably nearly dark jedi in the grande Sith tradition of the Sith Empire) or the force witches with Asajj Ventress, who aren't part of the Jedi/Sith theology tend to be dark side users because the barrier to entry is easier and more 'human'.
We don't see similar groups of light side force witches or non-Jedi militant force users.
Becoming something greater than an ambient force user like Maz or the Ithorian Shaman in the Telos Citadel in KotoR 2 takes focus and training. The dark side fringe groups train through the easy emotional paths of the dark side, repeatedly giving into base desires in return for more and more power, control be damned at times. Light side users, though, have no easy route to power other than the Jedi religion. Folks like Luke or Rey who let their childhoods be guided by Hope (a LS virtue) came easily into the Force. Luke's hope to get off that rock and be a legendary pilot like his father and Rey's hope to get off that rock and see her family again helped them become in tune with the Light Side, whether they knew it or not.
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It's called 'Bourbon' and already exists
Imagine if there was a drug that made you feel really good every time you hit someone in the face.
yes but that makes you really BAD at hitting people
*college flashbacks*
Leans back to FAAALCON PUNCH!
Poke
Fall
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It's called 'Bourbon' and already exists
Imagine if there was a drug that made you feel really good every time you hit someone in the face.yes but that makes you really BAD at hitting people
*college flashbacks*
Leans back to FAAALCON PUNCH!
Poke
Fall
well, you can't have everything
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Also, throughout Clone Wars (which is now considered canon) Obi-Wan constantly berates Anakin for being so attached to a droid (R2). Whatever his other merits, Obi-Wan is clearly depicted as falling into the "Droids are nothing more than objects" camp. So, while the phrasing is suspect, him not recognizing R2 is perfectly in character. (Also, throughout the different movies and cartoons, we see plenty of Protocol Droids and R2 units with the same shape as R2-D2 and C-3PO, but different color schemes. I'm sure there are numerous other droids in the SW universe with the exact same color scheme, but we never see them on-screen so as to not confuse the audience.)
This.
R2 and 3Po were never 'special'. They were one of thousands or even millions of droids that looked JUST like them. Protocol droids especially... we've seen things that looked just like 3PO in cloud city and at the beginning of Ep1 on trade federation ship.
It's like seeing an original Nintendo system and then finding out that it was the SAME nintedo you owned 30 years ago...
no reason in the world to recognize those droids as anything other then droids.
Aren't the Jedi encouraged to love but not form attachments?
This was on the short list of things I hated about the prequels. Was this stupid mandate against emotion ever even hinted at prior to those movies?
Yoda preached peace and serenity.. .but he never blasted Luke for caring about his friends. He simply told him that for the 'greater good' he needed to stay. Not to follow his emotions into disaster.. but not to banish the emotions.
Luke was told about his father and sister and the force running strongly in his family.. but nobody ever said they were 'forbidden children' and jedi shouldn't have kids...
Hate and anger were destructive. They were called out as bad. But this idea that the Jedi knights were emotionless robots seemed stupid at the time, and still dumb now.
I hated that whole subplot a hundred times more then anything Jar Jar did. I can ignore the gungan... but this is still floating around. :P
This was on the short list of things I hated about the prequels. Was this stupid mandate against emotion ever even hinted at prior to those movies?
You could always consider Obi-Wan's and Yoda's hermetic, monk-like lives hints that the Jedi Order might be a bunch of ascetics. Granted, their lifestyles could have been part of keeping a low profile and out of imperial trouble, but the idea of them being like monks didn't come out of the blue with Episode 1.
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Also, wouldn't Owen and Beru have recognized 3P0 in short order?.
No... because 3P0 wasn't "finished, lacking his outer shell until after Padme took him away from Tattooine.
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Also, wouldn't Owen and Beru have recognized 3P0 in short order?.No... because 3P0 wasn't "finished, lacking his outer shell until after Padme took him away from Tattooine.
Also... some 20 years had passed and, as has been established, many droids look the same. C-3PO also had been 'wiped' and wouldn't have recognized them, either. You could make a case that part of the reason Owen took 3PO was due to a vague memory of a similar droid all those years ago.
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Also, throughout Clone Wars (which is now considered canon) Obi-Wan constantly berates Anakin for being so attached to a droid (R2). Whatever his other merits, Obi-Wan is clearly depicted as falling into the "Droids are nothing more than objects" camp. So, while the phrasing is suspect, him not recognizing R2 is perfectly in character. (Also, throughout the different movies and cartoons, we see plenty of Protocol Droids and R2 units with the same shape as R2-D2 and C-3PO, but different color schemes. I'm sure there are numerous other droids in the SW universe with the exact same color scheme, but we never see them on-screen so as to not confuse the audience.)This.
R2 and 3Po were never 'special'. They were one of thousands or even millions of droids that looked JUST like them. Protocol droids especially... we've seen things that looked just like 3PO in cloud city and at the beginning of Ep1 on trade federation ship.
It's like seeing an original Nintendo system and then finding out that it was the SAME nintedo you owned 30 years ago...
no reason in the world to recognize those droids as anything other then droids.
I don't regard my college room-mate's car as anything more than a means of transportation, but I'd recognize it if I saw it now, and it's been more than 18 years.
The prequel trilogy drops the ball on fleshing out the backstory hinted at in the original trilogy. I enjoy looking at the pretty pictures when I watch it, but it contradicts the original trilogy so much that I just can't take it seriously.
I'm aware of how judgmental that sounds, so let me just say, I completely understand that I'm the kind of guy who lies on the couch daydreaming about D&D, and George Lucas is the kind of guy who founded Lucasfilm, Lucasarts and Industrial Light & Magic, and that thar is the difference between us. :P