Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

Starkiller Base was a cool concept that they could have done a lot more with, but it also could have just been the First Order's heavily-fortified capital that could have made a great ending set-piece by forcing the New Republic and Resistance to launch a massive assault to wipe them out once and for all in a big Endor-style space and ground battle.

Either way, I hope that The Last Jedi does more of its own thing than trying to be a re-tread of Empire Strikes Back. We already get the "Resistance evacuates its recently-discovered base against an overwhelming First Order force" parallels, not to mention Rey training in the Force with an old Jedi on an out-of-the-way world, but I really hope that other than those two things (both of which are logical, as the First Order discovered D'Qar in the last movie and Rey has to train) that the movie is more original.

Didn't Dark Empire have a Starkiller Base-type weapon that could destroy star system too?

The Protomen enhanced my life.

Yep, the Galaxy Gun.

One of the multitude of retarded superweapons the Empire wasted money and resources on when they could have rebuilt their fleet.

I actually think that there's an old Legends comic where that style of thinking is actually criticized by other Imperials.

What do you guys think of the theory of Poe being killed off? It's odd that we don't really know much about what's going on with him, but I wonder if he'll have a bit of a Cassian bent to him. Being pushed to the moral edge by his loyalty to the Resistance.

I don't want Poe to die, but my worst fear is him being paired off with a female character just to squash the talk of him being queer.

I've gotten no vibes whatsoever that Poe will die. What I'm concerned most about is Leia's situation at the end of the film. Although what little we know about her role is that her and Poe's stories are strongly tied together.

PSN ID: FateSeraph | Switch friendcode: SW-0145-8835-0610 Congratulations! She/They

I doubt Poe will die, because otherwise why did they bother making him survive TFA?

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?

Awww. https://www.cbr.com/star-wars-mark-hamill-millennium-falcon-return-emotional/

"Mark Hamill made his long awaited return to the franchise that made him a household name in 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, reprising his role as Luke Skywalker for the final scene of the film. Now, Luke will play a much larger part in this year’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and the return to the franchise was an emotional one for the actor.

Mark Hamill opened up about his return to the Millenium Falcon in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I’m telling you, I didn’t expect to have the reaction I had,” Hamill recounted. “I was there with my family, with [my children] Nathan and Griffin and Chelsea and my wife Marilou, and [Lucasfilm] asked if the documentary crew could be there when I came back on the Millennium Falcon. I mean, this was not on the shooting day. I was just street clothes and going to visit that set. And I said, ‘Sure.’”

“It was sort of like visiting an old house that you lived in when you were a kid,” Hamill added. “I mean, I just welled up with emotion and I said, ‘I need to be by myself.’ They had recreated it down to every last detail that I remember. The oil drips, the hanging pipes, just everything. The dice in the cockpit.”

The emotional significance was not lost on director Rian Johnson. “God, I remember so vividly getting that shot of him turning on the lights in the Falcon cockpit,” Johnson said. “And we all kind of looked at each other, just like, ‘Oh my God.’” “There’s a lot of melancholy,” Johnson added. “You know, that ship is just filled with ghosts for Luke.”

Returning to the role that launched his career has been difficult for Hamill, emotionally. “All of this, happening to me again was… it’s hard to put into words,” he said. “I figured when the prequels came out, plus a few years, people would forget about us. But it never really went away,” he said. “People have these stories they tell you, you know, about how [Star Wars] helped them through hard times. Or they met their wife in line for this [movie], and were married by that one, and had a child by that one. I feel like, you know, I need to calm things down because it’s one of those things that if you start crying, I’ll start crying, so, stop it.”

The Protomen enhanced my life.

I highly doubt Poe will die. I do hope, however, that he's in The Last Jedi more than he was in The Force Awakens. I don't want him appearing during the evacuation at the beginning, disappearing for three-fifths of it, then having a role in the rest of the movie.

Poe outlives everybody. The series ends with him and R2 as grizzled immortals telling impossible stories to whoever will listen over a glass of blue milk

edited 20th Nov '17 4:01:58 PM by KnownUnknown

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

Because I was going to respond to this several days ago but forgot:

I got the impression that a surprising number of actors look down on motion-capture. Ostensibly because it's not 'real acting'; there's a reason Serkis has never been nominated for an Oscar despite deserving it. I can't help but think it's partly a function of vanity on the part of a lot of actors, both because it means their face isn't onscreen and because it would mean sharing the credit with animators and character designers. Additionally, actors tend to get paid less for mo-cap roles, although there's been lobbying to change that.

It's a shame though, because alien characters are really well suited to motion capture performances, I think. You can basically sidestep any risk of the uncanny valley if you want to.

It's probably just a function of the people I hang out with (I tend to stay far away from the Rey/Kylo shippers), but I've seen the opposite a lot of the time. There's a significant number of fans who want the focus to be on 'Rey Skywalker' and 'Ben Solo' as two halves of Vader's legacy. Whereas the pushback against Rey Skywalker has come more from not liking the idea that your genetics determine your worth as a character/being a fan of found family plots. ^note  Yes, yes I know "the main saga films are about the Skywalkers" I can like a fictional work while still being uncomfortable with some of the core concepts. I have similar issues with Harry Potter, for example.

Given how often I see people shipping literal siblings (whyyyyyy?) I don't think Rey and Kylo being cousins will do much ship sinking.

That Mark Hamill interview was just precious.

I stated before that Poe dying would be a waste, but it would also be incredibly weird considering Oscar Isaac turned down the role at first because of Poe's original fate in TFA. It's the whole reason Poe is a main character now. However, Poe does definitely need more screentime to justify his position as an MC. Hopefully, this movie can shut the Poe-haters down (if he has any anyway).

It'd be really weird to do a hasty rewrite of TFA to let Poe survive when he was originally supposed to die like 20 minutes in (in the TIE Fighter crash), only to then kill him off in the next film. Especially since Oscar Isaac was so good that Poe has become something of a fan favorite despite his limited screentime already.

And if they're going to write Leia out (for obvious reasons), then it makes even less sense to kill him off right now.

Also on the subject of SKB, it's funny to hear some people compare it to ANH. Because for me, if you take the trench run out of it (which lasts like 20 seconds tops anyway), it feels much more like ROTJ than ANH if anything imo.

I really hate the idea of Rey being a Skywalker. It's boring, predictable, and if it were the case I feel like it should have been stated in TFA in the same manner that Kylo being Han's son was - just a nice, understated Wham Line. At this point, her not being a Skywalker would be a bigger twist than if she was. Imagine how much more tragic and relatable Rey would be if she never gets closure over why her family abandoned her? Just like a real child trying and failing to understand why daddy left. Only for Luke to offer up a simple "I don't know." Hell, that lack of closure and frustration might be the jumping off point for her leanings to the Dark Side.

But her being a Skywalker, just being Luke's kid and the next in line as a familial chosen one? Boring, predictable, and uninspired. I've never bought that whole "the movies are about the Skywalkers" line - but even if you ascribe to it, Ben is just as much of a Villain Protagonist as Rey is The Hero - he fulfills your Skywalker quota, whether he's redeemed or not. There's no reason for Rey to be a Skywalker other than predictable tradition, when by contrast there's several pluses to her just being a random nobody who steps up to save the galaxy - i.e., what Luke would have been anyway and what Anakin actually was.

If you want me to really trigger you, saying Rey should be a Skywalker lends credence to the concept of midichlorians as well. Heh, I'm half-joking there, but still. I don't like Rey Skywalker, I don't see the appeal.

"A king has no friends. Only subjects and enemies."

Can we not make "triggered" jokes, please?

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?

If Ben is the last Skywalker the family dies disgraced, though. Do not want.

It's the curse of the Dark side unfortunately,when you have a family member who was powerful dark lord it's inevitable that someone else in the family tries to follow

New theme music also a box

That makes it sound like you're trying to posit that evil is a genetic trait. That really doesn't sit well with me.

but HOW?

Rey has no expectations of being a Skywalker. As such, finding out she's a random person affects nothing about her and the people around her. Maybe for the audience, but not for her. And really, why even build a mystery in the first place if you choose not to resolve this issue? Rey's family must be addressed one way or another. And if there's one thing I dislike about orphan stories, it's the Deceased Parents Are the Best trope. An easy way out to give both Rey a horrible childhood and yet not deal with parental responsibilities. In other words, it allows Rey to idealize parents she never knew without needing to face her real parents, and we all know that Star Wars loves a Broken Pedestal every now and then. This is why Harry Potter is great. It took time to develop James and Lily Potter as people and make it a big deal in Harry's life.

A random nobody with Force powers offers nothing to a film saga called the Skywalker Saga. We already have nobodies being heroes and they don't need Force powers to back it up. It is being faux-progressive at the expense of storytelling. The saga is the story of the Skywalker family from generation to generation, with history repeating itself time and time again. If Rey is a nobody, then we are to accept two outcomes for Kylo Ren as the sole heir and both are undesirable.

1) Kylo Ren gets redeemed: Now you are repeating Darth Vader's redemption beat by beat. Double Standard on story cliches.

2) Kylo Ren doesn't get redeemed: Now the Skywalker lineage ends with an evil lunatic who ruined his parents and grandparents' lifework to keep Vader's image alive. A Downer Ending and it also sends an Unfortunate Implication regarding bloodline. If you have Anakin's blood, you are destined to become evil because it is In the Blood. Han Solo said so and Luke Skywalker doesn't count given that he's grown bitter and angry in his exile.

Additionally, Rey is already a special person because of her Force powers. She didn't earn them, she was born with them. Kinda defeats the purpose of being a nobody considering that every single Jedi (except Skywalkers) are nobodies with special powers. And she is not original either. She is a female Luke Skywalker from her desert upbringing to her Hero's journey. If she is Skywalker in all but name (and no it doesn't work as a Skywalker can be anyone because she was raised in a specific and yet similar background to the Skywalkers that was beyond her control), she might as well be Luke's daughter.

edited 20th Nov '17 6:22:45 PM by Shadao

Plot twists that solely exist to subvert an obvious outcome are usually far worse than said obvious outcome.

This song needs more love.

Leia and Shmi don't matter?

I don't think Rey being a Skywalker is boring, because it means that she has to deal with the fact that her hero is her father who possibly abandoned her.

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?

I suspect the people who dumped Rey off on Unkar aren't her actual family.

Shimi is the mother of Anakin and not a Jedi. Leia has Force-Sensitive powers, but turns down on being a Jedi. Only Anakin, Luke and Ben have trained themselves in the ways of the Force. And two of them went evil. If Rey is a Skywalker, it balances out the ratio and makes it clear that choices not blood is what determines people's fates.

The last Skywalker being a mass-murdering daddy killer would be a TERRIBLE way to end a NINE-movie family saga. Way to spit in the face of the Skywalker's and their fans, totally worth it (not)! Especially after basically destroying EVERYTHING that they accomplished post-ROTJ and making them lonely and miserable, ugh.

Also as others have said, just because something is "unexpected" or "a twist" does NOT automatically make it GOOD!! I feel like some people have been conditioned to believe that, or that swerves are the ONLY way to tell a good story. And, that's simply not the case. Sometimes things are "obvious and predictable" for a reason. Because it makes sense to do it that way.

And I've said this before but it bears repeating. My biggest problem with Rey being "unrelated" at this point is simple, then just tell us that. Don't leave EVERYTHING about her parents/backstory so cryptic (to the point of not even giving her a last name), draw attention to it, then drag it out for so long, only to then go "well her parents are people that you've never heard of before and have no reason to care about. Wasn't that totally worth the wait?"

If her parents aren't important, then there's no reason not to just tell us who they are. Heck you can even leave the mystery of what happened to them in there, just make it clear early on that she isn't a legacy character. They created this potentially controversy/backlash by choosing to make everything about her so cryptic, and then spending 1/3 of the trilogy telling us NOTHING!!