Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

I mean, the Empire did plenty of Putting on the Reich.

The First Order's just borrowing that same aesthetic.

edited 27th Aug '15 2:20:21 PM by higherbrainpattern

And the Imperial March returns too. Albeit modified a bit. Reminds me of the versions of it that appeared in Star Wars The Clone Wars.

Well, the original WW 2 German uniforms had zero to do with racial supremacy, but rather strict militarism.

Which means the answer to the question is yes.

Yeah, I realise now that Putting on the Reich only refers to the uniform. Hard to outdo the Empire in that of course.

But they're taking it even further. Leaders on standing on this elevated platform, rows of loyal uniformed troops as fas as the eye can see, red banners (presumably with a logo or emblem)... that's pretty much a Nuremberg Rally right there.

That's how every rally is performed.

They are supposed to be devotees to the ideals of the Empire, so it would make sense to go further into Totalitarian imagery. EU supplements about the old Empire made it seem more Authoritarian (the difference is that Totalitarian wants to get all of society on board and transform society in the image of the regime. Authoritarian just wants to keep society out of government and keep their rule secure and distant from popular interference).

Authoritarian: If you keep your head down, pay your taxes, and don't try to undermine the government, you'll probably be fine.

Totalitarian: WORSHIP THE GOVERNMENT! YOU’RE NOT WORSHIPPING HARD ENOUGH!

New promo poster◊.

That looks amateurish.

I agree, especially since it just says "Star Wars" and not the title of the next movie. I'm calling Photoshopped.

That's because it's a store poster from Hasbro. It's pimping their entire line not just the Episode VII subset.

Hasbro known for not putting in a ton a effort in the toy side of things ironically... at least with their own franchises...

Still thinking about that prophecy Anakin was supposed to fulfill.

If Snoke turns out to be a Sith he'd better be a wannabe who relies more on his soldiers than his abilities. Otherwise that prophecy that fans like so much is getting shat upon.

ETA: Unless it's seen as a subversion and lauded for it. Given that there wasn't really any prophecy talk in the OT, and that Abrams seems a lot more focused on those than the PT, I'd bet he sidelines the whole thing as shitty writing and goes on as if there wasn't any prophecy.

edited 28th Aug '15 12:53:54 PM by Journeyman

There can be factions of Sith that are different from Palpatine's out in the galaxy, you know. That would explain the existence of more Sith in the galaxy.

I don't know why everybody's so hung up on the prophecy.

It's made clear that the Sith do not embody the entirety of the dark side, and neither do the Jedi represent the light side. The prophecy specifies the Sith will be destroyed, not that there will be no more conflict. Kylo Ren may very well be a completely new dark side faction, while still swinging around a red lightsaber to provide a similar conflict. In fact, given the name of the movie, I wouldn't be surprised if they introduce a completely different "light side" faction that is not a Jedi.

If the Knights of Ren aren't fundamentally Sith, then the movie needs to find a way to sell that these new black-wearing, dark-side using, and red lightsaber-wielding as being somehow fundamentally different from the black-wearing, dark-side using, and red lightsaber-wielding guys from the OT/PT. And that's going to be a hard sell for the general movie-going public, even if us geeks can tell the difference very easily.

The only way to do it is to have some core differences in their philosophy when compared with the Sith. A place to start is to make them very adamant Well-Intentioned Extremists, to contrast with the Sith trying to enact an ancient vendetta and attain power more or less for power's sake.

Perhaps even going as far as to have Snoke or Kylo Ren to outright say that the reason the Empire failed (and why, in their opinion, the First Order won't) was because the Emperor cared more about fulfilling a vendetta against the Republic and the Jedi then he did about the actual stated principles of the Empire.

I'm still not entirely convinced Snoke is the actual mastermind, but that may just be because I know Andy Serkis best as the sniveling, pathetic Gollum.

The true mastermind is a secretly evil Han Solo faking his death to conquer the universe.

I have a feeling Kylo Ren is going to kill Snoke and take over as leader of the First Order at some point.

Watch the new Planet of the Apes movies. He ain't a sniveling coward there. He really IS a mastermind, though he trusts the wrong person.

And that whole Prophecy side conversation was a direct reaction to someone saying that Snoke WOULD be an actual Sith, not just some Dark Sider.

Has anybody else noticed that the lightsaber Finn is wielding (in both posters) appears to be Anakin's? The one that he passed down to Luke, until Luke lost it dueling Vader in Cloud City? I wouldn't have noticed at all, except it appeared in the trailer too. I wonder how the hell anyone found it after it fell down that bottomless shaft? And I wonder how Finn ends up with it?

Yep, its the same lightsaber. As to why Finn has it and how it was recovered, guess we'll find out when the film comes out.

If I had to guess, it was probably either recovered by the Empire during their occupation of the city or some random Cloud City maintenance worker^note after they stopped freaking out over the disembodied hand they also found down their. After that it's probably changed hands multiple times with most of it's owners having no idea what they got their hands on. Eventually it is acquired by the alien that we saw hand it over in the second teaser trailer, who knows exactly what they have gotten their hands on.

edited 28th Aug '15 5:26:14 PM by Falrinn

Personally, I wouldn't mind a Hand Wave of "Some worker found it stuck in a shaft somewhere, it eventually found it's way somewhere."

Vaguely related, but I've always thought a nice Bookend to Luke's journey to becoming a Jedi Master would be giving Obi-Wan's lightsaber (lets say Vader kept it and Luke finds it years later) to a young Force-Sensitive Kenobi relative (not a grandchild, a grand-niece/nephew or something). There were some early rumors that Kenobi relative was going to be introduced in this movie, and while I think that rumor was bogus, Luke giving Obi-Wan's lightsaber to a Kenobi relative would be a nice way to bring things full circle.