Star Wars: The Force Awakens thoughts
Jan. 6th, 2016 04:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladybug_archiveSo, I finally saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Somehow I managed to avoid all spoilers except part of Kylo Ren's identity. Now in contrast to this, I'll want to gobble up all spoilers I can for the next film, or at least, certain ones (if such things are talked about at all).
I absolutely loved the new good guys! I went in hoping to like Finn especially, because a character that was trained as a stormtrooper and then can't abide what they do and leaves sounded so intriguing and fascinating. And I did love him. And Rey. They have a beautiful friendship throughout the film. My dad thinks they're going to end up hooking up romantically, but there's really no proof of that yet. I would kind of love if they showed that a guy and a girl can be friends without romance entering into the picture at all, but I also wouldn't have any problem with them becoming romantically involved. I liked Poe too, but they didn't show as much of him and I'm still puzzled as to how he survived (even though I kind of thought he probably would). I couldn't catch what he said by way of explanation, but it kind of sounded like he didn't really explain very well. And then BB-8 is so cute! I love the idea of him and R2-D2 hanging out and being buds. And C-3PO seemed to instantly like BB-8, too. More adorableness!
Kylo Ren kind of repulses me. His arc seems to be very similar to that of Jacen Solo from the New Jedi Order and Legacy of the Force books. He seems to honestly believe he's doing the right thing, and he's been so indoctrinated by the Dark Side of the Force that he thinks that to complete his training, he has to kill someone he loves. Jacen's arc was tragic in that he was depicted as a very three-dimensional character and you saw all of his internal struggles in the books. I imagine that's what they're going to try to do with Kylo Ren. But with Jacen, you realized that there was no hope of redemption for him as there was for Darth Vader. I kind of feel that after what Kylo Ren has apparently done, any redemption for him will leave me cold.
Also, who the **bleep** is Supreme Leader Snoke? He just seemed to come out of nowhere. There was no explanation of who he was or how he came to power. Even just one sentence on that would have been good, I think. He puzzles me. So far he hasn't really come into his own as a character. He seems to just be there, as a bad imitation of the Emperor.
I read some blurbs on Captain Phasma before the movie came out, and it intimated that she might not be completely evil. I'm kind of intrigued by a female stormtrooper, especially one in such a position of power, but I certainly didn't see any indications in the movie that she isn't fully indoctrinated in the stormtrooper way of life. She might not be completely evil, per se, but I didn't really see any hints of goodness, so I wonder what that was about. Perhaps a vague spoiler for the next movies.
It was pretty awesome to see Admiral Ackbar and that other guy from Return of the Jedi! I hadn't expected them at all and I always loved them, so that was a pleasant surprise. They were even played by the same people!
I want to know why C-3PO has a red arm. And gah, it was so sad about R2 powering down. I didn't really like that, but I loved when he powered up at the end and C-3PO was so happy. So cute!
It was wonderful to see everyone who came back. I wish Luke had had a bigger part, but I did love how powerful that ending scene came across, oh wow. I look forward to hopefully seeing a lot of Luke in the next film. And ... wait a minute, it just occurred to me, why did Luke's prosthetic hand look like Anakin's from the prequels? Luke's prosthetic hand looked like a real hand in the original trilogy. You could only tell it was fake because of the control box.
I was very impressed by the effects. Everyone seems to be excitedly praising it up and down for going back to practical effects instead of just doing CGI for everything. It was definitely impressive. People are a lot more creative when they rely on other methods for creating things. That said, I have to admit that I honestly don't always have a trained enough eye to tell when something is CGI versus practical effects. Maybe that's part of why CGI doesn't bother me as much as it does some people.
I kind of wondered at why the plot was basically Episode IV redone. I was slightly amused when that was actually brought up in the script, when a character compared the Starkiller to the Death Star. Then when Leia actually showed the difference between the two, it was kind of yikes.
Because the plot was basically Episode IV redone and the parallels were just everywhere (robot with special information turned loose on a desert planet, finds one of the human leads, they escape from stormtroopers in the Millennium Falcon, an older character becomes a surrogate father figure to the young characters, something destroying planets has to be destroyed, etc. etc.), I was afraid someone was going to die in the climax. When Han first called out to Kylo Ren on the bridge and they met, I had a horrible "Oh no" feeling. Not only did I figure Han might die then, I figured that it might be similar to the storyline that killed Mara Jade in the Legacy of the Force books. And that's what happened.
Or did it? Honestly, the lightsaber wound didn't look bad enough to be fatal. It looked more like it would be the fall into the reactor core that would do it, and we didn't see the impact. Considering that they even revived Darth Maul of all people in Clone Wars canon, I have a hard time believing Han is gone since we don't have the body nor did we see the explosion of him hitting the core. (True, the planet blew up minutes later, but people were evacuating. If someone was able to save Han during the fall, they could have escaped with him.) Leia certainly felt something, but she could have felt that he was hurt and that their son had done it, not necessarily that he was dead (even though she thought so). Until the movies confirm he's dead by showing his spirit or something, I will stubbornly hope that there is still hope. (And even then I might still hope he's astral-projected or something, unless he outright says he's dead.)
Or until J.J. Abrams or someone says absolutely that he's dead. When we got home, I looked up stuff and I honestly can't find that there was so much as an official statement made about Han's state. The closest I could find was Harrison Ford saying he didn't want to be the next Alec Guinness. (He also said things made sense with the direction the character was going in. Being murdered by his own son makes sense? Sorry, no, it doesn't. At all.) There doesn't seem to be any absolute confirmation Han is dead, and even stranger, no fan outcry. Maybe on Tumblr they're wailing or something, but I find it very odd that the fans are so silent about a character beloved from the very first film being apparently killed off. Usually there's something mentioned in the news or on Wikipedia or somewhere about something like that if a particularly loved character from any franchise dies. I know characters die in almost every Star Wars film, but usually they're characters who have only appeared in one particular film. When it's someone who's been in several, there's usually some mention of fan reaction somewhere. Considering Han was there from the beginning and loved from the beginning, it just seems very strange to me.
The fans' reaction, or should I say, non-reaction, is also part of what is making me wonder if Han is really gone. Rather than taking it in stride, perhaps at least some of them don't believe he's dead either. Also, Disney is planning a midquel movie about Han taking place between episodes III and IV. It's about time, really; I was disappointed there was nothing about Han in the prequels. But that seems an odd move to make after just killing him off. They got rid of the character, yet they want to go back and explore more about him? Maybe I'm just in denial and it's foolish, especially since Harrison Ford always wanted Han to die for some weird reason, but it just doesn't feel right to me. I just don't believe Han's gone.
Meanwhile, since this sort of thing is not the type of thing I intend to wait around for canon to solve, especially since they might not solve it, I made a decision almost as soon as Kylo Ren ran Han through. I never thought I'd write another Star Wars fanfic; I'm just not good at it. A big part of Star Wars is the locales and creatures and technology, and I just don't have the level of imagination to come up with that sort of thing. I'm grounded in reality and just can't seem to do fantasy or sci-fi very well. Even if I focus more on the characters, sooner or later I have to bring the other stuff in and I just can't seem to, and that is largely why I rarely write Star Wars fic and I don't think I've even tried since 2002. But I am notorious for "save the dead character" fics, as everyone probably knows, and this is not something I'm going to take lying down. I started planning my save Han fic while watching the movie and continued planning and sorting out how to make it make sense the way I wanted it to go right up to the time I sat down and started writing. It flowed. There's still a lot more to go, but a big chunk has been accomplished. I'm a little nervous about posting it on FF.net, as I may get a ton of WTH reactions, but I tried to make it make sense with the characters and their motivations and I actually don't think it looks too bad. Overall, I figure I probably will post it.
And what if the canon decides Han is absolutely dead and there's no wiggle room for that? Well, then I'm afraid that as much as I love the new characters, the new movies will not be canon to me, any more than the New Jedi Order books are canon. I never forgave the books for killing off Chewbacca, and I won't let the movies go with a pat on the head if Han is really dead. I want the core characters to stay alive, dang it, and to not die until they've lived good, full lives. Is that really so difficult for the movies and books to capture? And why do Han, Leia, and Luke have to live such tragic lives? Why can't they have some happiness? They don't seem to be able to have that in either verse following Return of the Jedi. Naturally it wouldn't be rainbows and smiles when they're trying to rebuild their galaxy, but do their lives have to be so downright heartbreaking? Give them a break!
My current state of mind is that the only absolute canon are the six live-action movies George Lucas made. Everything else is ambiguous and only canon if you want it to be. I never considered any of the books to be absolute canon, honestly; they were just fun supplementals and possibilities. (I was kind of baffled when someone complained to me that the movie Wookie planet was "wrong", for one thing. Why should George make it the way the books did, if he wanted to do it differently? And why should it be considered wrong if he did?) And now that George isn't making the movies and the new crew's vision for them is not what he wanted, plot-wise, that kind of seems like a good enough reason to render the new movies non-canon if I don't want them to be canon.
Note that I don't agree with all of George Lucas's decisions. I don't like some of the changes he made when he started fiddling with the original trilogy to make it align with the prequel trilogy. I thought it was awful to put prequel Anakin into the last scene instead of keeping older Anakin. And I never liked changing Boba Fett's voice. I always figured he was using a voice changer to get that gravelly tone, so it didn't seem odd to me that he didn't sound like Jango. I think it's an insult to the original actors to remove their work from those movies.
But nevertheless, no matter what I think of decisions like that, I still consider George Lucas the master of the Star Wars verse and of the characters he created. Unlike my feelings about the Once Upon a Time people, I don't really have problems with how he handled the characters. Although I do think Anakin's downfall could have been depicted differently in the prequels, I like just about everyone better than Anakin, so that's not a huge stumbling block for me.
That said, I feel Kylo Ren is more evil than Darth Vader. At least Vader still cared about his family and didn't want them harmed. Kylo Ren, even if he struggled with his feelings, opted to murder his own father. That is just ... ugh. It was likely that love of family that was the good Luke sensed in Vader. Kylo Ren has chosen to destroy all family ties. I just can't see him as being redeemable.
It's so haunting that Leia told Han she felt he would be the one to save their son and Han scoffed but then he tried and that happened. I wonder whether it was meant to be deliberately haunting and ironic or if Han really will still save Kylo Ren, if they decide he can be redeemed. That still wouldn't mean Han is alive, though; he could show up as a spirit.
I feel a strong urge to watch the original trilogy, continue reading one of the original trilogy-era books I have, play Star Wars Monopoly, anything where Han is alive and okay. I would also like to watch Episode I.
Anyway, in any case, I definitely want some merchandise of the new good guys. I bought a big figure of Finn right after the movie last night. I wished I could have found Rey too, but I didn't see any of her. I don't even know if they've made a big figure of her. They made a small one, but Wal-Mart didn't have any of those last night, either. I could have got the small Finn and waited for the small Rey, but the big one was only two dollars more, so it seemed silly to get the small one. I really want Rey too, though, so I hope they have a big one of her.
It's so frustrating, though; everything is so cheaply made these days. The big figures don't have removable clothes or helmets anymore. I remember when the big Star Wars figures all had removable clothes and even the guys had rooted hair. The Qui-Gon figure was just awesome!
Little Golden Books, too. They used to be illustrated so beautifully and lushly and you could tell a lot of effort had been put into making them amazing. Now they look like they were illustrated by a middle-schooler on his lunch break. It's like they feel kids' books just don't deserve the same time and devotion they used to. That's something that's made me sad for years.
But anyway. So, there were definitely things I liked about The Force Awakens and definitely things I didn't like. And we'll see how that balances out as we near the second movie next year. I'm so glad we don't have to wait three years for it....
I absolutely loved the new good guys! I went in hoping to like Finn especially, because a character that was trained as a stormtrooper and then can't abide what they do and leaves sounded so intriguing and fascinating. And I did love him. And Rey. They have a beautiful friendship throughout the film. My dad thinks they're going to end up hooking up romantically, but there's really no proof of that yet. I would kind of love if they showed that a guy and a girl can be friends without romance entering into the picture at all, but I also wouldn't have any problem with them becoming romantically involved. I liked Poe too, but they didn't show as much of him and I'm still puzzled as to how he survived (even though I kind of thought he probably would). I couldn't catch what he said by way of explanation, but it kind of sounded like he didn't really explain very well. And then BB-8 is so cute! I love the idea of him and R2-D2 hanging out and being buds. And C-3PO seemed to instantly like BB-8, too. More adorableness!
Kylo Ren kind of repulses me. His arc seems to be very similar to that of Jacen Solo from the New Jedi Order and Legacy of the Force books. He seems to honestly believe he's doing the right thing, and he's been so indoctrinated by the Dark Side of the Force that he thinks that to complete his training, he has to kill someone he loves. Jacen's arc was tragic in that he was depicted as a very three-dimensional character and you saw all of his internal struggles in the books. I imagine that's what they're going to try to do with Kylo Ren. But with Jacen, you realized that there was no hope of redemption for him as there was for Darth Vader. I kind of feel that after what Kylo Ren has apparently done, any redemption for him will leave me cold.
Also, who the **bleep** is Supreme Leader Snoke? He just seemed to come out of nowhere. There was no explanation of who he was or how he came to power. Even just one sentence on that would have been good, I think. He puzzles me. So far he hasn't really come into his own as a character. He seems to just be there, as a bad imitation of the Emperor.
I read some blurbs on Captain Phasma before the movie came out, and it intimated that she might not be completely evil. I'm kind of intrigued by a female stormtrooper, especially one in such a position of power, but I certainly didn't see any indications in the movie that she isn't fully indoctrinated in the stormtrooper way of life. She might not be completely evil, per se, but I didn't really see any hints of goodness, so I wonder what that was about. Perhaps a vague spoiler for the next movies.
It was pretty awesome to see Admiral Ackbar and that other guy from Return of the Jedi! I hadn't expected them at all and I always loved them, so that was a pleasant surprise. They were even played by the same people!
I want to know why C-3PO has a red arm. And gah, it was so sad about R2 powering down. I didn't really like that, but I loved when he powered up at the end and C-3PO was so happy. So cute!
It was wonderful to see everyone who came back. I wish Luke had had a bigger part, but I did love how powerful that ending scene came across, oh wow. I look forward to hopefully seeing a lot of Luke in the next film. And ... wait a minute, it just occurred to me, why did Luke's prosthetic hand look like Anakin's from the prequels? Luke's prosthetic hand looked like a real hand in the original trilogy. You could only tell it was fake because of the control box.
I was very impressed by the effects. Everyone seems to be excitedly praising it up and down for going back to practical effects instead of just doing CGI for everything. It was definitely impressive. People are a lot more creative when they rely on other methods for creating things. That said, I have to admit that I honestly don't always have a trained enough eye to tell when something is CGI versus practical effects. Maybe that's part of why CGI doesn't bother me as much as it does some people.
I kind of wondered at why the plot was basically Episode IV redone. I was slightly amused when that was actually brought up in the script, when a character compared the Starkiller to the Death Star. Then when Leia actually showed the difference between the two, it was kind of yikes.
Because the plot was basically Episode IV redone and the parallels were just everywhere (robot with special information turned loose on a desert planet, finds one of the human leads, they escape from stormtroopers in the Millennium Falcon, an older character becomes a surrogate father figure to the young characters, something destroying planets has to be destroyed, etc. etc.), I was afraid someone was going to die in the climax. When Han first called out to Kylo Ren on the bridge and they met, I had a horrible "Oh no" feeling. Not only did I figure Han might die then, I figured that it might be similar to the storyline that killed Mara Jade in the Legacy of the Force books. And that's what happened.
Or did it? Honestly, the lightsaber wound didn't look bad enough to be fatal. It looked more like it would be the fall into the reactor core that would do it, and we didn't see the impact. Considering that they even revived Darth Maul of all people in Clone Wars canon, I have a hard time believing Han is gone since we don't have the body nor did we see the explosion of him hitting the core. (True, the planet blew up minutes later, but people were evacuating. If someone was able to save Han during the fall, they could have escaped with him.) Leia certainly felt something, but she could have felt that he was hurt and that their son had done it, not necessarily that he was dead (even though she thought so). Until the movies confirm he's dead by showing his spirit or something, I will stubbornly hope that there is still hope. (And even then I might still hope he's astral-projected or something, unless he outright says he's dead.)
Or until J.J. Abrams or someone says absolutely that he's dead. When we got home, I looked up stuff and I honestly can't find that there was so much as an official statement made about Han's state. The closest I could find was Harrison Ford saying he didn't want to be the next Alec Guinness. (He also said things made sense with the direction the character was going in. Being murdered by his own son makes sense? Sorry, no, it doesn't. At all.) There doesn't seem to be any absolute confirmation Han is dead, and even stranger, no fan outcry. Maybe on Tumblr they're wailing or something, but I find it very odd that the fans are so silent about a character beloved from the very first film being apparently killed off. Usually there's something mentioned in the news or on Wikipedia or somewhere about something like that if a particularly loved character from any franchise dies. I know characters die in almost every Star Wars film, but usually they're characters who have only appeared in one particular film. When it's someone who's been in several, there's usually some mention of fan reaction somewhere. Considering Han was there from the beginning and loved from the beginning, it just seems very strange to me.
The fans' reaction, or should I say, non-reaction, is also part of what is making me wonder if Han is really gone. Rather than taking it in stride, perhaps at least some of them don't believe he's dead either. Also, Disney is planning a midquel movie about Han taking place between episodes III and IV. It's about time, really; I was disappointed there was nothing about Han in the prequels. But that seems an odd move to make after just killing him off. They got rid of the character, yet they want to go back and explore more about him? Maybe I'm just in denial and it's foolish, especially since Harrison Ford always wanted Han to die for some weird reason, but it just doesn't feel right to me. I just don't believe Han's gone.
Meanwhile, since this sort of thing is not the type of thing I intend to wait around for canon to solve, especially since they might not solve it, I made a decision almost as soon as Kylo Ren ran Han through. I never thought I'd write another Star Wars fanfic; I'm just not good at it. A big part of Star Wars is the locales and creatures and technology, and I just don't have the level of imagination to come up with that sort of thing. I'm grounded in reality and just can't seem to do fantasy or sci-fi very well. Even if I focus more on the characters, sooner or later I have to bring the other stuff in and I just can't seem to, and that is largely why I rarely write Star Wars fic and I don't think I've even tried since 2002. But I am notorious for "save the dead character" fics, as everyone probably knows, and this is not something I'm going to take lying down. I started planning my save Han fic while watching the movie and continued planning and sorting out how to make it make sense the way I wanted it to go right up to the time I sat down and started writing. It flowed. There's still a lot more to go, but a big chunk has been accomplished. I'm a little nervous about posting it on FF.net, as I may get a ton of WTH reactions, but I tried to make it make sense with the characters and their motivations and I actually don't think it looks too bad. Overall, I figure I probably will post it.
And what if the canon decides Han is absolutely dead and there's no wiggle room for that? Well, then I'm afraid that as much as I love the new characters, the new movies will not be canon to me, any more than the New Jedi Order books are canon. I never forgave the books for killing off Chewbacca, and I won't let the movies go with a pat on the head if Han is really dead. I want the core characters to stay alive, dang it, and to not die until they've lived good, full lives. Is that really so difficult for the movies and books to capture? And why do Han, Leia, and Luke have to live such tragic lives? Why can't they have some happiness? They don't seem to be able to have that in either verse following Return of the Jedi. Naturally it wouldn't be rainbows and smiles when they're trying to rebuild their galaxy, but do their lives have to be so downright heartbreaking? Give them a break!
My current state of mind is that the only absolute canon are the six live-action movies George Lucas made. Everything else is ambiguous and only canon if you want it to be. I never considered any of the books to be absolute canon, honestly; they were just fun supplementals and possibilities. (I was kind of baffled when someone complained to me that the movie Wookie planet was "wrong", for one thing. Why should George make it the way the books did, if he wanted to do it differently? And why should it be considered wrong if he did?) And now that George isn't making the movies and the new crew's vision for them is not what he wanted, plot-wise, that kind of seems like a good enough reason to render the new movies non-canon if I don't want them to be canon.
Note that I don't agree with all of George Lucas's decisions. I don't like some of the changes he made when he started fiddling with the original trilogy to make it align with the prequel trilogy. I thought it was awful to put prequel Anakin into the last scene instead of keeping older Anakin. And I never liked changing Boba Fett's voice. I always figured he was using a voice changer to get that gravelly tone, so it didn't seem odd to me that he didn't sound like Jango. I think it's an insult to the original actors to remove their work from those movies.
But nevertheless, no matter what I think of decisions like that, I still consider George Lucas the master of the Star Wars verse and of the characters he created. Unlike my feelings about the Once Upon a Time people, I don't really have problems with how he handled the characters. Although I do think Anakin's downfall could have been depicted differently in the prequels, I like just about everyone better than Anakin, so that's not a huge stumbling block for me.
That said, I feel Kylo Ren is more evil than Darth Vader. At least Vader still cared about his family and didn't want them harmed. Kylo Ren, even if he struggled with his feelings, opted to murder his own father. That is just ... ugh. It was likely that love of family that was the good Luke sensed in Vader. Kylo Ren has chosen to destroy all family ties. I just can't see him as being redeemable.
It's so haunting that Leia told Han she felt he would be the one to save their son and Han scoffed but then he tried and that happened. I wonder whether it was meant to be deliberately haunting and ironic or if Han really will still save Kylo Ren, if they decide he can be redeemed. That still wouldn't mean Han is alive, though; he could show up as a spirit.
I feel a strong urge to watch the original trilogy, continue reading one of the original trilogy-era books I have, play Star Wars Monopoly, anything where Han is alive and okay. I would also like to watch Episode I.
Anyway, in any case, I definitely want some merchandise of the new good guys. I bought a big figure of Finn right after the movie last night. I wished I could have found Rey too, but I didn't see any of her. I don't even know if they've made a big figure of her. They made a small one, but Wal-Mart didn't have any of those last night, either. I could have got the small Finn and waited for the small Rey, but the big one was only two dollars more, so it seemed silly to get the small one. I really want Rey too, though, so I hope they have a big one of her.
It's so frustrating, though; everything is so cheaply made these days. The big figures don't have removable clothes or helmets anymore. I remember when the big Star Wars figures all had removable clothes and even the guys had rooted hair. The Qui-Gon figure was just awesome!
Little Golden Books, too. They used to be illustrated so beautifully and lushly and you could tell a lot of effort had been put into making them amazing. Now they look like they were illustrated by a middle-schooler on his lunch break. It's like they feel kids' books just don't deserve the same time and devotion they used to. That's something that's made me sad for years.
But anyway. So, there were definitely things I liked about The Force Awakens and definitely things I didn't like. And we'll see how that balances out as we near the second movie next year. I'm so glad we don't have to wait three years for it....
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Date: 2016-01-08 12:39 am (UTC)I thought Poe said he'd been thrown from the ship on impact, and headed off looking for Finn in the wrong direction. Also I saw a bit of an interview with Poe's actor where he said he was playing towards a subtle romantic angle with Finn, so maybe Finn and Rey really will stay platonic.
I think all the droids have probably been together for a little while, at least...did we get a solid timeline of when Luke packed up and went to his island?
I think my exact words regarding Kylo Ren while Gautam was driving me home were "horsefaced emo douchetroll." (I was upset.) While it's true that I enjoy horsey faces from time to time (or at least one particular horsey face), the fangirl appeal of this guy eludes me entirely. We were joking about the "whoosh" sound effect when he takes his helmet off being a tiny blow dryer to poof his hair back up. Seriously though...he idolizes Darth Vader. Vader killed (and subsequently died) to save his family. Anakin probably would have been revolted at what Kylo Ren did. "Grandfather, advise me!" "Step 1: DON'T KILL YOUR DAD.
You douchetroll."Han is not dead. OBVIOUSLY the lightsaber missed all of his vital organs, cauterized the wound shut, and he landed on something bouncy. He's perfectly fine and now he has a really handy chest-tunnel to hide rolls of change and Mentos in. I did hear that Harrison Ford had signed on for the second movie, but that could very well be flashbacks. As for the "wanting Han killed off" thing...it seems like he mostly wanted it to happen in Return of the Jedi, which he's sort of notoriously less-than-crazy about. He seemed to be pretty enthusiastic about the character up to that point.
Ditto on wanting to watch the original trilogy. I just need to figure out how to download the Despecialized edition to the computer with a Blu-Ray burner, first.
no subject
Date: 2016-01-08 01:12 am (UTC)Nope, I don't think so, unless the novelization covers that....
Bleh, I was afraid the fangirls were all over him. Ugh. LOL at your blow dryer joke, though. And I totally agree, yes. Even when Darth Vader was evil, before the end of Return of the Jedi, he would not have approved of Kylo Ren's actions at all.
Yes, I'm glad someone else saw what I saw, that the wound did not look fatal! I don't know, everything seemed to be set-up in a way that the character could have survived. And I did find out about the casting call. Harrison Ford acted like he did not want to show up in a spirit capacity as Alec Guinness did (or at least, that's presumably what he meant), so his appearance in episode VIII could indeed be flashbacks. But I still want to hold on to a smidgen of hope. It seems like they're either teasing the fans and giving them false hope about Han being alive, what with the new president of Lucasfilm saying everyone would be in it, including Harrison Ford (while knowing that would make people think and hope Han would live), or else there really is hope and it will be more than flashbacks. And yeah, I actually found an interview with Harrison Ford from November where he said he regretted wanting the character killed off and he was happy to be able to be in the new movie. If Han is really dead, Harrison regretting wanting him to die seems rather ironic.
Good luck!
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Date: 2016-01-08 05:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-08 01:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-09 04:04 am (UTC)I think the same thing happened to Poe that happened to Finn, where he got ejected really far from the ship. What I want to know is why Poe up and left Jakku and didn't stick around to find BB-8 like he wanted to? And how did he leave, for that matter? Did he have to call Leia to come pick him up or something XD
I...really am curious to see what they do with Kylo Ren. I agree with you that a redemption would be hard to swallow, but if he's just evil and tantrum-y the whole time, that's not really satisfying either. My sister's boyfriend theorized that killing Han was a kind of Snape kills Dumbledore maneuver to gain
Space Voldemort'sSnoke's trust, but, who knows. He's...pretty universally hated by the fandom, at least from what I've seen. (My favorite descriptor so far is "disgruntled Hot Topic employee".)Yeah what the heck is up with Captain Phasma?! Why was she so casual about lowering the shields at the end!? True, she was outnumbered, but it was weird to me that she didn't really put up any kind of fight at all.
I don't know, I'd be surprised if Han's alive, mostly because I'd be shocked if they got Harrison Ford to come back a second time. XD Didn't he refuse to do Force Awakens at first? He seemed like he was having fun with the part, though, so who knows. I laughed forever at the bit where Finn says they can use the Force to disable the shield and Han just stares at him in disbelief and goes, "That's not how the Force works!!"
I really enjoyed Force Awakens, I've seen it twice now, but honestly JJ Abrams gave it the same treatment he gave Star Trek - well-written characters, excellent casting, great production value and overall fun to watch - but with a derivative plot. In both movies he found some way to hit the reset button, so to speak - in Star Trek it was some time travel business to effectively create his own AU, and in Force Awakens it was the starkiller base wiping out the Republic and putting the Resistance in the same position as the Rebels in the original trilogy. So I just hope that whoever is working on the next movie takes it as an opportunity to try something new and not re-hash Empire Strikes Back.
And I hope they explain more about what happened politically in the time between Return of the Jedi and Force Awakens. Like how the Empire became the First Order, what the heck the Resistance actually is, etc. etc...
I agree that having the villain be Han and Leia's son is just, like...kind of overly tragic for no reason? It kind of reminds me of why I hate the Game of Thrones show so much, like you can't just have a bunch of awful things happen and call it plot. Speaking of which, I really hope that Luke's been like, doing something productive all this time and not just being sad on Lonely Jedi Island. Like...don't run off and abandon your sister just because Jedi Summer Camp didn't work out, Luke! It was her kid! That's kind of a jerk move. ._.
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Date: 2016-01-09 06:56 am (UTC)Yeah, those are very good questions. I was wondering similar things. I don't know; I don't think Poe's return from the dead and explanation were handled too well.
True. I do think they're planning on the character being three-dimensional, from what I've read, but it's still really hard to think of a redemption for him. That's ... an interesting theory of your sister's boyfriend, though! And I'm glad to hear he seems to be quite hated. He really should be (instead of adored because he looks pretty **headdesk.**).
Harrison Ford is going to be in episode VIII; the casting call is out and his name is there, plus the president of Lucasfilm said everyone in the room with her would be in it, and he was right there. The question is whether he'll just be in flashbacks/a spirit/etc. I think he was having fun; I found an interview from November where he said he regretted wanting Han to die in Return of the Jedi and he was glad he could be in the new movie. And LOL, yes, he had such fun lines in the film!
Interesting analysis there. I wasn't sure if they wiped out all the Republic or not, but it kind of looked like Coruscant blew up and I'm horrified if it really did; I loved Coruscant.... And yes, it would be a shame if the new movies are all rehashes of the original trilogy.
Yes, totally! I kind of had the impression that the Empire was destroyed, but some disgruntled factions decided to create the First Order. Hmmm.
Oh yes indeed. I was thinking how horrible it was for Leia, with Luke going off and then Han leaving too. Gah. Hopefully there will be some satisfying blanks filled in there.
Also why I'm sick of how Once Upon a Time has been handled: it's basically a string of horrible things happening to characters without much thought behind it. Sigh.
Also, people are speculating who Rey's parents are and a popular theory is Luke. But I just can't buy Luke abandoning her when she was just a little kid.
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Date: 2016-01-13 02:22 am (UTC)Really! I hadn't heard that about Harrison Ford, that's exciting. Very curious to see what kind of role he'll have.
Ooh wait, I read something about that! It wasn't Coruscant, it was some other planet called Hosnian Prime. "Just as Chancellors served terms, the Senate also regularly voted to move itself to a different member world, to reflect that all worlds in the Republic had an equal say in the shaping of Galactic politics. Hosnian Prime was just the unfortunate current host." so says this article, which has some other good details - http://io9.gizmodo.com/all-the-backstory-you-desperately-want-to-know-about-th-1751196966
Another theory about Rey's parentage is that she's Obi-Wan's granddaughter. Which is...ehh, on the one hand, it might be cool to have a Kenobi saving and/or defeating a Skywalker. I also read a theory that her parentage is a moot point, that she's the only survivor of Luke's Jedi training thing that Ren wrecked and her memories were wiped to protect her.
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Date: 2016-01-13 02:47 am (UTC)Indeed! As much as I keep telling myself that the character will likely only show up in flashbacks and/or as a spirit, I just can't stop from having at least a smidgen of hope. It just keeps feeling like they're teasing the fans with the way they're handling the bit: saying he'll be in it, not making any statements about Han being dead, etc.
Oh whew, I'm glad of that. But so horrible for everyone who was there! And awesome! **clicks.** Oh, fascinating. I love the Visual Dictionaries. I should get that one! I've seen it at Wal-Mart.
Yeah, I don't really buy the Obi-Wan theory. Somehow I just can't picture him having a secret love affair. To be honest, I think Rey's parentage is not important. She doesn't have to have ties to another main character in order to be strong with the Force. But then again, I could be wrong and they do plan to handle it that way. And the theory that she was at Luke's training school and her memories were wiped to protect her is a really intriguing one.