Star Wars: The Force Awakens Spoiler Thread

All spoilers for the upcoming Star Wars movie should be posted here.

edited 15th Dec '15 2:07:05 PM by jdj42

Thank you so much for making this thread.

You're welcome(Also, you should probably stop reading this thread).

I liked the movie overall, and the first half or so unambiguously, but it kind of lost me toward the end. I'll focus on the negative, since that's who I am!

The Starkiller Base felt both too big and too small at the same time; too big in the sense of being something that was there to be even bigger and more over the top than the Death Star, and too small in the sense of ending up as nothing more than just another rehash of the Death Star without the original's impact or presence. It also left me puzzled as to the roles of the Resistance, Republic and the Order. It took the Empire two decades and the resources of an entire galaxy to make the first Death Star - does the Order command similar resources, and if so, why was there a Republic at all, etc.

Also, Kylo Ren was the least intimidating Dark Jedi ever. I felt awed and intimidated by Vader, Maul and Tyrannus. With Ren, I just felt that given a lightsaber, I could have beaten him myself.

The new protagonists were great, though, and I loved Han and Chewie. I kept hoping they would keep both around, even though Han's death was heavily telegraphed.

So for anyone that has seen the movie. Is Rey the kid of one of the Skywalker children or were we way off base on that front?

She didn't make out with Kylo, so probably not.

So, Kylo is basically Jacen from the old EU?

edited 16th Dec '15 8:36:19 AM by Xorn15

Oh man, I will pretend Return of the Jedi was the ending.

Could you stop please killing my favorite characters to make for a shocking moment?

edited 16th Dec '15 11:25:46 AM by JusticEqualsVengeance

Haven't seen it but I must know.

Are there new starfighters in this movie? Or did the designs stagnate

To be fair, this was what Harrison wanted all the way back during the OT.

So Han does die in this movie?

Had a question- is Phasma at all sympathetic?

Not that she needs to be but I kind of wondered because she's being billed as the new Boba Fett (who is/was somewhat heroic), but at least the trailers gave the impression that she took part in a massacre on Ren's orders- giving me the impression that she's more like a more active Tarkin.

Okay, I really liked the movie, but something seemed off.

The first act was great... the second... still great, just quite anti-climatic.

The climax felt a bit too rushed and predictable, with the whole Starkiller base being surprisingly boring. Also, in-Universe, it made no sense that those Empire left-overs were able to build a superweapon like this without being noticed. Plus... did they just destroy Coruscant?

Also, I was disappointed by Phasma's small role. Hope she's coming back.

edited 16th Dec '15 7:29:32 PM by blak89

1. What happens to Luke Skywalker and Han Solo?

2. Is the black guy force sensitive?

1. Luke is in exile after Ben Solo/Organa/Skywalker/whatever betrayed him. He shows up in the last 30 seconds. Han dies in the way too long third act to his own son after trying to take his lightsaber for like 1 minute. He gets stabbed and falls down a shaft like Luke did in V.

2. No. Rey is but Finn never uses the force and sucks with the lightsaber(which pretty much everyone does. Not even Kylo who's supposed to be intimidating looks to be good with the blade which might be due to not being used to fighting blade users). They should've had Finn with just a blaster on the poster since that's what he's good with.

The movie was a 4/5 or 7.5/10 on my scale(around IV/III's scores). Posted my thoughts in the other thread before this one went up but I'm looking forward to the spin-offs more than VIII/IX now.

We should try to count all the callbacks.

edited 17th Dec '15 3:18:30 AM by LordofLore

So there was never a New Jedi Order in the thirty years after ROTJ or did Luke train other Jedis besides Ben Solo in the thirty years interval?

Is Rey one of Luke's trainees?

Does Luke Skywalker have kids?

How is the Resistance different from the New Republic?

edited 16th Dec '15 11:18:06 PM by warrior93

Luke set out to train others after VI, Han and Leia sent their son to him and he betrayed Luke and killed everyone but Luke. Ben is the Anakin to Luke's Obi-Wan/Yoda and Snoke's Palpatine as far as we know.

No, she was abandoned on Jakku as a child and ends the movie meeting Luke to start her training(or something).

No clue. Rey could be his since she was left on a planet much like he was but we don't know.

No clue aside from the Republic supporting the resistance. 5 planets in the Republic are destroyed but we have no idea if they were old planets like Coruscant.

edited 17th Dec '15 1:18:02 AM by LordofLore

Oh. That's...mighty convenient.

I'm a bad person for busting out laughing after reading what happened to Luke? It just seems like the universe or galaxy is out to make Luke suffer needlessly. Also, I find it incredible that Luke in 30 years never gained the nerve to kill Ben Solo or that Ben Solo was able to kill all the Jedi trainees.

@Lordof Lore

Do they explain in the movie why Leia never became a Jedi?

edited 17th Dec '15 12:29:41 AM by warrior93

Nope. Her scenes are from what I remember: She shows up as a general in the resistance with soldiers and Poe to save Han, Chewie and Finn, bonds with Han over seeing their son again for the first time in years(Han sees him slaughter people with stormtroopers and kidnapping Rey), tells Finn about how Luke disappeared to find the first Jedi temple after his attempt to restart the Jedi's failed, hugs and talks with Han before Chewie, him and Finn leaves for the mission to the Star Killer, gets almost the same scenes she had in IV when the Death Star was about to fire on Yavin only this time its the Star Killer, feels Han's death in the Force and then reflects on his death before R2 wakes up and completes the map to Luke. She, a wounded Finn and Poe stays with the resistance at the end while Chewie and Rey leaves to go to Luke.

edited 17th Dec '15 1:16:32 AM by LordofLore

So how is Finn's portrayal in this movie? I haven't been hearing good things from some friends of mine.

Do you mean the acting or the character itself?

I personally liked both. The actor is One Of Us while the character, while not the most competent in the movie's Universe, is likeable enough. Pretty sure he will develop a lot in the following movies.

edited 17th Dec '15 2:32:44 AM by blak89

Finn takes a couple of pratfalls and has a couple of goofy moments, but in the end none of them really came off as degrading to me and I really liked the character. His rapport with Poe is great and him and Rey act off one-another well.

Ren was clearly very juvenile, which is appropriate. He has potential, but is crude in his use of the Force (and lightsaber), which is something that could've been a deliberate choice by Snoke, who waited for Kylo to kill the only thing that held him back: his father.

Stopping the blaster bolt in mid-air and holding it there, without seemingly even trying, was awesome.

Yeah, as much as I didn't like Kylo I have to admit that his immobilization gimmick is pretty good. Makes him different enough from Vader(choke), Palpatine(lightning), Maul(lightsaber), Grievous(multiple arms/cyborg) and Dooku(force powers/lightning).

Was the order he got his name from the Knights of Ren or did I mishear?