Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

Do we know what Phasma's main weapon is supposed to be yet? Based on the dummy weapon she has it looks like some sort of riot staff.

It's going to be a lance or something like that? I could have sworn in Vanity Fair or some magazine article that I read they are giving her a medieval sort of weapon. And Snoke's Praetorian guard are sort of terrifying? Like if one of those dudes started running up to me full charge I'd shit myself.

I like the designs of Snoke's guards. But the bright red color of their armor makes me think "That's just plastic" in a way that even Stormtrooper armor doesn't.

Maybe it'll look better in the movie.

edited 29th Jul '17 1:01:50 PM by MetaFour

Good lighting and post production touch ups can do wonders.

Yep.

I hope the guards actually establish themselves as a threat, too.

I kind of like the idea of truly Space Age plastic being virtually indestructible.

Scully box confirmed, and the Dark Side apparently doesn't own an iron.

Surely I'm not the only one to notice that Luke doesn't have a lightsaber (I know he gave his to Rey at the end of TFA; but this implies that he doesn't get another one) .... but he does carry a yoda-stick?

And that apparently Kylo Ren has at least one fan?

Luke busting out the saber is virtually guaranteed to be the money shot. They're not going to undermine that with a stage photo when the movie is still half a year away.

Assuming he uses one at all instead of going all Force God or something. Recall that he gave Sheev the single greatest "fuck you" in the galaxy, and did so with the act of throwing away his lightsaber.

edited 29th Jul '17 6:51:10 PM by TheAirman

I'm increasingly thinking that Snoke will not only go down in this one, but fold like a wet paper bag against Luke. The True Final Boss of the ST will be someone else.

I've been getting that feeling as well. It'd be a neat payoff for TFA- the first movie in the trilogy sets things up so everything resembles the original trilogy, to the point that even factions in-universe are intentionally copying things from thrity years prior... and then everything gets subverted, and the OT trappings are cast aside as the real plot rears its ugly head. My inner symbolism-obsessed postmodernist asshole of a writer would be pleased if that were the case. (I imagine a lot of fans might feel blue-balled, though.)

Also, Rey's outfit is slowly growing on me. ^_^

On the subject of Finn from my earlier conversation with deuteragonist- I feel like I didn't explain my point thoroughly enough. Finn's first scene in the movie is one of his dying friends leaving a bloody handprint on his helmet as he pitches over. It colored my initial perception of Finn- here was a stormtrooper being presented as human enough to be traumatized at the loss of his teammates. It made me think he was horrified not just by what the First Order had done, but what their enemies had done in return.

Problem is, nowhere else in the film does Finn show any concern about his former fellows in the stormtrooper corps or go into his life before the movie, apart from a few bits about his service record and where he was stationed in the past once; in fact, the movie outright glosses over Finn's reaction to killing FO personnel during his escape with Poe and the attack on Takodana. It felt like it wasn't the fighting that he was trying to get away from anymore- just the First Order.

I actually sorta remember him singling out the FO in particular when Rey confronts him on Takodana, but, of course, my memory might be playing tricks on me again.

edited 29th Jul '17 8:38:48 PM by EndlessSea

I think a lot could've been done with the concept of Finn as a person struggling to overcome indoctrination and Imperial propaganda. For instance, reversing his reaction to hearing Poe's mission.

• Poe: That droid's got a map that leads to Luke Skywalker!

• Finn: Skywalker?? We have to get away from him! That man's killed thousands of soldiers and the Sith Lords themselves! He's a murderous maniac... oh, wait, other team now.

Or saying casually horrific things and not getting that he was put under abuse.

• Finn: How old were you when you were claimed from your progenitors?

• Poe: My what?

• Finn: Your claiming. When your masters acquired you from your biological creators, so as to begin your training. I began my molding by my masters at my seventh cycle.

• Poe: You mean... you were kidnapped from your family. At seven.

• Finn: Yes, the First Order starts us soon so we may quickly grow. I grew used to the taste of the Z6 baton at eight. What do they use in the Resistance?

edited 29th Jul '17 9:10:02 PM by Tuckerscreator

Or beliving imperial propaganda every now and them

Finn: Just asking...do you wookie really eat your sons?

chewbaca: AHGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Finn: Ok! Ok! Just asking, not need to be so sensible about it.

, Some things should have made it into the TFA as a prologue, particularly 2/3 of 'Before the Awakening', the actual prologue novel that explains everything. Poe's story could have been compressed into about 7-8 minutes of screen time, recapping the state of the galaxy, what the Republic is doing, and why the Resistance is both unacknowledged and crucial. Knowing the New Republic is in an undeclared war and currently hamstrung by infiltrators and sympathizers puts an entirely different complexion on the Resistance.

Then maybe 4-5 minutes on Finn, explaining how he is consistently top 1% in his class, but feels genuinely disjointed and isolated because he still has empathy poking through his indoctrination. How he refuses to kill civilians during his first mission, and the call comes in and he is immediately deployed to Jakku before he can be reconditioned.

Seriously-in a movie with a runtime that long, adding 12 or 13 minutes of necessary backstory is not much of a burden, and several sequences could have been much shorter to make the room while losing nothing of consequence.

edited 29th Jul '17 9:46:37 PM by ViperMagnum357

Alternatively, keep Poe and Finn together after the crash on Jakku, and they could talk all that over during the first act. I've even thought about cutting the entirety of the film before the TIE Fighter sequence to make room for character building, because "Finn's a rogue stormtrooper and Poe's a pilot the bad guys captured" wouldn't take more than two or three sentences of dialogue to establish even in the middle of a space battle.

Alright that second conversation is pretty funny

Yeah, finn back story seen used more to establish he is good rathern than to make any point about the first order: once he start shooting out stormtroper is like he wasnt never one of them to begin with.

So I feel like Snoke will likely have a very different power set from Palpatine. For some reason I'm thinking Plague Master, maybe just because he looks extremely ill.

Makes me think of Darth Malig, Big Bad of the Legacy of the Sith fanfic series. He was a dark side healer, but could also invert the effect to induce catastrophic illness and injury in those around him. IIRC there was a creepy bit at the climax of the third fic where Malig was simply strolling through a battlefield, with any enemy troopers who got too close to him just collapsing from sudden sickness before they could fire their weapons or land a blow.

New EW covers. And New stills.

Luke looks boss.

I have to say, nothing that they're saying about Luke in this film, or his dynamic with Rey, is exactly filling me with excitement. More like annoyance.

So there's apparently another order of Force-using aliens on Ach-to. I'm now wondering if that early leak got these characters and the puffin creatures conflated, making it seem like the puffin creatures were the Force-users.

And they're all female.

Not hermaphroditic yet feminine- all female.

An entire species composed of a single biological sex that cannot procreate on its own.

...clearly, someone has figured out how to clone a Force adept. Clone Wars 2: Electric Boogaloo. Be afraid.

I think you're assuming a human method of sexual reproduction there.

Of course, the identifier of "female" might imply that already, but perhaps Johnson means something more along the lines of "female-presenting"? Of course, that itself raises the question of just why they do that...

Aliens who are entirely male or entirely female are still a thing in space operas, evidently. Proabably comes from their fantasy roots.