History Headscratchers / TheForceAwakens

** They try. You can see a near-miss blast at the Falcon just as Rey and Finn are boarding it, so they tried shooting at it, missed, and the ship was in the air and moving before they could swing around for another pass.

** The first problem involves siphoning the sun, using the ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'' principle, over a [[SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfDistance distance]] far enough for the planet's inhabitants to stand on the surface comfortably, comparable to the goldilocks zone, despite Ice UsefulNotes/{{Planets}} being outside of that zone, while the energy lost while traveling this distance is not enough to make the weapon ineffective, despite this siphoning being done across an astronomical distance with conventional mechanics and no sci-fi explanation. Wait, the explanation is the base is collecting [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_energy Dark Energy]], and also running on dark energy, and the [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Thermal_oscillator Thermal Oscillator]] is creating a containment field to contain the energy itself and to allow the base to expend less energy while running on dark energy. This is supposed to take care of the second problem, NoConservationOfEnergy, along with the intuitive sense of ice being cold and naturally dealing with excess heat. The planet is not dealing with enough energy for it explode, it is dealing with less energy, that less energy being enough for it to be stably contained within the planet and harnessed by the base as a super-weapon. In order for the blast to be more powerful than the seemingly weakened energy it is drawing in, the energy would be presumably catalyzed and made powerful enough to be fired without destroying the planet. The thermal oscillator containment field, containing the energy in a way that is safe and stable, could presumably be maintaining the stability of the atmosphere, the planet, the energy being drawn in, and the energy being expelled when the weapon is fired, but it is actually not stated to be doing that, that is all speculation. The base is running on dark energy. The containment field is containing the energy. The energy containment is allowing the base to be expending less power as it runs on dark energy. So the field is the gas tank, for the automobile that is the base, while it sucks in gasoline, from a great distance away, through an array of thermal collectors, redirecting energy to the planet's core without losing significant energy, held in place by natural planetary magnetics and the containment field. How do the thermal collectors work? They just work.

** Or indeed, the guards could have been Unkar's thugs who attacked Rey before the TIEs showed up.

* First Order special forces TIE fighters and TIE pilots have red stripes or flashes to denote their superiority, right? So what's the story with SF TIE pilots using standard (non-striped, one-seated) First Order variants when chasing the Falcon? Even with the damage done to the Finalizer's hangar, you'd assume they'd have a few SF TIEs left and use them for such an important sortie.
** Weren't those TIEs there to primarily act as air support for the ground troops, on a planet with next to no life and even less armed forces? They probably figured that sending normal TIEs would be enough.

* Maybe there was a lot of work to do in setting up the New Republic, fighting the remnants of the Empire, etc. before Luke felt he could take the time to establish a new Jedi school.
* Also, the other two films establish that he '''did''' spend some considerable time in training another apprentice: ''Leia''. It's possible he didn't feel confident enough in his capacity to teach any new recruits until after he'd had some practice with his own sister.

** That... makes absolutely no sense. For one, why wouldn't Han have removed that after the events of ''A New Hope'', since they knew the ship was being tracked to Yavin. For another, if the tracking device from A New Hope was never removed in between the films of the Original Trilogy, then the Empire could've easily just tracked the Millennium Falcon to Hoth instead of needing hundreds of probe droids scouring the galaxy. Or hiring bounty hunters to search for the ship in the asteroid field. Or followed the Falcon to the Rebel fleet at the end of Empire Strikes Back or before the Battle of Endor, and ambushed the rebels with the Second Death Star there instead of coming up with the elaborate plan of leaking the shield generator's location. If the tracking device was still aboard the Falcon since the events of A New Hope, then the rest of the Original Trilogy would've been a lot shorter.

[[folder: Recycled music?]]
* Any reason as to why Snoke's theme is so similar to Palpatine's Teachings from Ep.III? Is John Williams recycling music or are they trying to make subtle hints that Snoke is Plagueis?
** John Williams does recycle music sometimes, its one of the reason why a John Williams film score is often fairly recognizable. It could have some significance as a plot point, or it could just be a deliberate callback to a similar idea, namely a more philosophical evil.
** John Williams is known to recycle the music of other composers. For example, the melody of the Imperial March (aka the Darth Vader theme) is lifted straight from [[Music/FryderykChopin Chopin's]] funeral march, while the ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' theme comes from [[Music/AntoninDvorak Dvořák's]] 9th symphony. So it's not unthinkable he would recycle his own themes as well.
** Heck, even his own themes from different movies can sound similar. You ever try humming the Star Wars theme and Superman theme back to back?
[[/folder]]