STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS: The good, the bad, the crazy talk *SPOILERS*

After a couple of screenings, jotting down my thoughts and observations. Lists (not comprehensive) of things I love, nits to pick, mysteries, and some genealogy crazy talk follow. If you haven't seen the movie yet, turn back now, for HERE THERE BE *SPOILERS*

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LOVE.

1. Rey as self-saving "princess," beginning with Finn ready to bumble to her rescue on Jakku, followed by her chasing him down as Poe's jacket thief, followed by all the moments where Finn takes her hand and asks if she's okay when for the most part, Finn is probably more in need of help than Rey. Even, somewhat, to the moment on StarKiller when Rey's pretty much 90% saved herself and runs into Han and Chewie and Finn and Chewie reveals it was Finn's idea to rescue her.

2. Rey setting Finn up for that straight-on/straight-down shot from the Falcon on Jakku.

3. Finn's origin. Being a Trooper with a conscience who bucks his conditioning and turns all his training against the First Order that made him.

4. Finn and Poe's important roles. Since they're likely not candidates for Jedi training.

5. The Resistance's cavalier attitude toward destroying a new Imperial doomsday device.

6. Han and Leia's son being named Ben. On first screening, THAT's what really got me, more than Han's death (which I totally felt sinking-feeling-telegraphed by an earlier scene). On second screening, tho, it was Han's death that choked me up.

7. The new X-wing designs apparently based on one of McQuarrie's concepts (I remember the single circles on each side of the cockpit split by the wings). I've been loving the way REBELS has been bringing concept designs (and even Kenner products) to canon life and dig seeing it continued in film.

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PICKING NITS.

1. Everyone's a little too ready to be lifelong friends. Bonds are forged at an accelerated rate. Some of that is the nature of the situations the characters are thrown into (foxhole friends, right?) but it still feels rushed.

2. Would've liked to have seen/heard some of the events of the original trilogy as myth/fairy tale (beyond the 14/12 parsec Kessel Run, which *is* lovely to hear =). Maybe Rey and Finn debating what they've heard in front of Han. Or Kylo Ren dispelling some mythic detail about his father (shooting first? =) or his friends during interrogation of Poe or Rey.

3. Deliberately misleading audience about Artoo not having the rest of the map to Luke. What was the point? Especially delivering the zero percent likelihood in STAR WARS's resident oddsgiver.

4. Missed opp: waking Artoo for apparently no reason at all to reveal the map to Luke. When it was happening on screen, I totally believed it was because Luke's lightsaber had been brought into proximity (and maybe that was actually the case, but only explained in Astromech lingo?).

5. Disappointed: to find out that Max von Sydow was NOT Kes Dameron, Poe's father. I thought that would've been a great puzzle piece to Rey's backstory, that she was intentionally stranded on Jakku for her protection, and a trusted friend of the Skywalkers and/or her fam was stationed closeby to keep watch and help/guide should that be necessary (a la Kenobi on Tatooine w Luke).

6. While spacetime seems to be very malleable in STAR WARS tradition (try calculating the time that passes in any of the original trilogy vs. the space that must be covered), it seems a bit above and beyond to have the destruction of the Hosnian system visible from the surface of Maz's world. I did not appreciate that. The entire visualization of the StarKiller weapon beam bugs me. The "speed" of it. Someone in the Resistance described it as a hyperspace weapon, so that's an out, but then it would've been nice to see the beam disappear into and reappear from hyperspace.

6.5 The StarKiller death beam: one stream splitting into multiple?

7. Missed opp: a reaction from a Force-y character—Rey, Leia, maybe Luke?—to the destruction of the Hosnian system. Also, an emotional tie to that system / world / people. In STAR WARS, Alderaan was Leia's home, and painted as innocent and peaceful in just a few words. The disturbance in the Force registered by Obi-Wan also helped create empathy for the planet's destruction.

8. Weapons tech. I have a theory that weapons and ammo have got more material than energy since ROTJ. We see ventral cannons which seem to fire missiles that track. The StarKiller death beam is some kind of plasma, or capsules/warheads. And maybe Ren is the strongest Sith we've seen on screen, or maybe no Sith has ever decided to flex this ability on screen, but this is the first time we've seen any Force-strong individual stop a blaster blast in mid-air. The change in ammo could explain how it's possible now but wasn't in the past. Also, this is the first time we've seen so much literal bloodshed in a battle involving blasters. True, this could be the PG-13 rating, but not reason it couldn't be both. In the past, blaster victims were scorched and knocked out. Now we're seeing them cut up and bleeding.

9. How easy and ready Finn is to jump into battle w/ a lightsaber in hand. I know this can be explained by his training, but I would've loved to have seen that backed up by seeing First Order troopers in the background of a scene on StarKiller base training with staves and swords. Too telegraphed? There was no comment from Han about his skill. That would've been appropriate, and allowed Finn to give him a smartalec and/or dark answer about his training ("comes a little too easy, but glad I can use it to protect instead of kill").

10. Rey's moment of Force clarity when locking sabers w Kylo. That was not the ideal time for an extended pause, The trigger word that leads to this moment—"the Force" when Kylo jabs at her apparently untrained abilities—doesn't really call back to anything in Rey's experience that we know about (maybe something from a book?). Clearly the scene is shot to have a specific effect on us, and we know what it is, but it doesn't add up all that well when I think about it. No one gave her the "energy field that connects all living things" lesson. Was there a callback to the lightsaber vision that I didn't catch? An echo of Yoda or Kenobi's voice?

Was that moment a moment of connection with Luke? Obi-Wan or Yoda?

In any case, I would have appreciated SEEING somehow that Kylo was giving her a moment of respite, perhaps to consider a threat or offer, something to explain how Ren wasn't obviously dismayed and afraid of Rey being able to take a time out during their battle to mentally check her Force twitter feed.

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MYSTERIES.

1. Rey's vision, triggered by Luke's lightsaber. It starts out in that entrance hallway on Bespin, (showing us the last place/battle in which it was held by a Skywalker?). Then jumps ahead to Luke and Artoo witnessing Kylo Ren's murder of Luke's last student. There are bodies on the ground in the foreground, with Ren and six(?) others behind him standing over them. The entire scene seems to be tinted red, no telling if that's an accurate depiction of the environment or mood setting by the vision. You can hear bits of Yoda and Obi-Wan, what I first thought were memories of words spoken by them to Luke, but after talking to Mike, now consider as words addressed to Rey. Weird, tho. This *seems* to be psychometry, a vision or reading triggered by contact with an object, Luke's lightsaber.

If I assigned any logic to it, I'd say that Rey could only read what the saber itself had "experienced." Following that leads to some interesting ideas. Of course, Luke had the saber when Obi-Wan and Yoda trained him. He lost the saber, along w his hand, on Cloud City after his first visit to Dagobah. He must have recovered it (or recovered it from someone who had recovered it) from Cloud City's gutters, probably after ROTJ, had it with him while training new Jedi, had it with him when Ren went Dark, and then left it with Maz on her smuggler's oasis world.

2. When Ren Force-reads Rey, he takes the taunting road, throwing her lonely existence on Jakku in her face. How she can't sleep at night, and she imagines and island in the middle of a blue sea, her version of counting sheep. I forget the exact turn of Ren's monologue here, but he paints this imagined scene as being a vision of her home. It seems like Ren has plucked it from her memory because of that, to amp up the taunting. What he definitely does NOT think it is is the location of Luke Skywalker. But when the end of the movie reveals that that's exactly where Luke is, we know. Does that mean that Rey's home and Luke's location are the same place? Or does it mean that Rey somehow managed to hide Luke's location by couching it in her memory as imagined? Of course, I like to think that they're the same place. That Rey was there with Luke and her mother and happy for a time.

3. In Rey's AT-AT home, she's got few comforts, but one of them is a doll in a Rebel pilot's uniform, orange with white detail. Dad? Or perhaps some post-Yavin Rebellion marketing and fundraising? =)

4. That sidelong look that Han gives Rey when she says, "I didn't think there was this much green in all the galaxy." That moment is built to be a callback, something that reminds us of a similar exchange, an echo of it, but for the life of me, I can't remember an original that it should connect with. If Luke was more expressive (altho, "if there's a bright center of the universe" is pretty great prose) it might've been something that Han heard Luke say on approach to Yavin 4, right? Maybe it's a callback to something from the upcoming Han solo flick? Something that his fiancee says? That would be some remarkable planning.

Whoa. Could it be something that Ben once said in his youth? Which, would mean that until that moment, he would have been raised on a non-green world and then taken to one at some point.

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PEDIGREES.

It certainly feels like we're meant to connect the dots from Rey to Luke. The lightsaber in Maz's cellar seems to call to her (with her own voice, crying out when her family leaves her on Jakku). She sees things in her vision—triggered by contact w/ Luke's lightsaber—that only Luke could have experienced. When Kylo Force-probes her mind he sees her picturing/imagining an island in a sea as a way to find peace in her lonely life on Jakku. It's not a very specific description, but when we arrive at the end of the film, we definitely feel a connection. Is this a subconscious Force-vision by Rey of Luke's whereabouts or her own future? Or a half-remembered memory of where she came from, her home before Jakku?

Anyhow, the old Jedi order, the thousand-year-old one that was brought down in part by its own arrogance, is no longer around. There's no reason that Luke shouldn't find a companion and start a family. Heck, maybe he's playing the field. New Jedi gotta come from somewhere! I always thought that Qui-Gon was doing that in his downtime. Boppin' around the galactic rim worlds, doing Force tricks in cantinas to pick up the (worthy) ladies, and not-so-immaculately conceiving some Force babies.

Next up, in my head at least, is that Rey is Leia and Han's daughter, whom Han doesn't know about. This is kind of tough to see in light of how Leia and Rey interact, or it might fit in perfectly, given that they are BOTH strong with the Force. The only screen time they share is commiserate over the loss of Han, after the destruction of StarKiller base. Whoa, what if they connected during that lull in the saber battle? I'd be pleased with that.

But let's get back to back story. So, Han and Leia have enrolled Ben in Skywalker Academy and he's probably gotten his Womp Rat badge by now. Some minor issue blows up into a ridiculous argument and Leia and Han end up driving each other away, Han once more taking off for the stars. A few weeks later, Leia learns that she's pregnant. Given their last blowout, Leia decides not to let Han know, lest it affect his judgment when it comes to their ever more volatile relationship. She exploits some royal channels and connections, goes on space sabbatical for a few months, perhaps to Naboo, has her child, and returns to the Republic (and Resistance) with an aide who happens to have a newborn baby girl in tow. Flash forward five or so years… Kylo, a fully-fledged Dewback at Skywalker Academy, goes Dark on Luke, killing most of his fellow students, sparing a select few, who presumably become the Knights of Ren, and scarper off to the First Order. Luke alerts Leia and Han, whose relationship has remained rocky, at best. If Leia hasn't told Luke about Rey, well, Luke probably sensed her, right? Together, they enact Skywalker Relocation Program Protocols and set Rey up to be left on a remote world (this time one Vader wasn't born on, Jakku) with a trusted guardian (von Sydow instead of Guinness) and the tools that she would need at just the right moments to lead her to her greater potential and destiny (the map, the garbage ship, her father, Luke's lightsaber, like PAYBACK, but with the Force instead of a time window or whatever it was).

But how about that Rebel pilot doll? I like that as a clue to her father. Who would that point to? Could be Luke. Hrm… Wedge? Maybe Wedge and Leia…? Wow. I like that. I'd been thinking Lando and Leia for Finn for the wonderful melodrama of it, but maybe Wedge and Leia for Rey.

Of course, she could be another Anakin, a pure immaculately conceived Force-baby. Hopefully not, tho.

Frack. I've got a lot more spinning around my so-called brain, but I'll leave you with a summup of my pre-screening Finn theory and then pack it up. For now.

Finn as the son of Leia and Lando. With their tumultuous relationship, no doubt there were several periods where Han and Leia declared themselves "on a space break." And who's the longtime friend of the family with the strong caped shoulder to lean on? Lando Calrissian! Of course, they'd keep it on the down-low. Leia's pregnancy would be hidden by a sabbatical, the child would be born and given to Lando to raise, with regular visits from Leia. I came up with this before the movie opened. Now, after learning of the abduction and training practices of the First Order, well, it becomes a bit more complicated. The Empire would be very motivated to punish Lando and Bespin for their betrayal of Vader by taking his child, but you'd expect some initiative on the Resistance side to rescue him. Unless there are layers of secrecy, or perhaps even a faked death, involved. Hrm…

Well, he could still be Lando's son by a partner we haven't seen or met yet, and made a target for First Order abduction by his father's identity.

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Got tix for another screening tomorrow. May have more, slightly different rambling after that.

Keep on keepin' on~

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS: formidable opponent *SPOILERS*

Gonna do some Q&A vs. myself to work out some inner Sith's advocate dialogue I've had running in my head since Thursday night. *SPOILERS* follow!

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SITH: I feel like the movie is having the audience do a lot of the lifting when it comes to building relationships between new characters. It's okay when a movie does that and does it well—I always think of the marines in ALIENS, how they're such instantly recognizable and known personalities—but I feel like in this movie, it's just passable and maybe too self-referential, counting on us to match up the new characters to old characters in the same universe. Or maybe it's just Finn and Poe. There's some very good development shorthand, jokey lines and looks and quick understandings, that certainly help things along, but if you think about it, it's pretty thin, isn't it?

JEDI: Well, they're both swept up in the rescue, escape, chase, and survival adrenaline. A connection made in that crucible, that's bound to start very strong.

S: I suppose. But there's something about it, about all the new characters (Finn > Rey is kind of easy, driven by a crush, but Rey > Finn, awe at a Resistance fighter? as if she cared about the Resistance?), that seems rushed. When we encounter them, we're supposed to be primed to believe they'll be lifelong friends, somehow skipping the getting-to-know-one-another phases.

J: That may be strategic storytelling. There's a lot going on and certainly a pace to it. These are friendships built in foxholes, under fire, and while some of these individuals may be reluctant to take help or give trust, once they find the others fighting the same enemy, if not for the same reasons, that help and trust is taken and given. And Rey being impressed by a Resistance fighter? That's not inconsistent. She knows of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight, even if she considered him more myth than reality. *And* on a shelf in her AT-AT home, she's got a rag doll in a Rebel pilot's uniform! A reminder of a parent?

J: I like that she recognizes Han Solo as a smuggler before a Rebel general. I'm not sure what that's supposed to say about her, but I think it shows the company she's had to keep to survive on Jakku. She seems very much a natural do-gooder, so long as it doesn't take her away from waiting on her family.

S: Okay, new item. What about Finn and his lightsaber skills?

J: Well, of course I want to believe that there's something Force-y about that. But…

S: But there's nothing to back that up, really, right? He holds his own against some kind of electro-hammer expert for a good long while, and then vs. Kylo Ren (injured, but y'know, somewhat psychotically boosted by that injury). He's not victorious, but he does a lot better than someone who'd never picked up a saber before, right?

J: I'm still holding out hope that Finn's got some Force mojo, but let's say he does not. He's your average, non-Forcey, First Order Stormtrooper. Remember what he said about his life thus far. Abducted as a child and then trained and conditioned to be a trooper.

S: Yeah, that called to my mind the notion of child soldier.

J: But Jakku was apparently the first live fire that he experienced, so not quite that.

S: Right.

J: But, trained since childhood (you could see his baby pic on that screen when Phasma reveals that she was sending him for reconditioning when he chose to scarper). I don't think it's a stretch to believe that they are trained to be proficient in martial arts and weapons of all kinds. Blasters do run out of ammo. Well, I think they do. So, I'm telling you that as a trooper in training, Finn and the rest of the First Order minions learned to fight using swords of some kind.

S: Has there ever been mention of it being *difficult* for a non-Force-savvy person to use a lightsaber? It's not like Thor's hammer, but y'know, maybe the wielder needs to use the Force to hold the crystal in proper alignment for the blade to be stable? Like w Jedi Holocrons?

J: Yeah, that would be pretty cool. I don't have encyclopedic knowledge of any version of the SW universe, so can't say one way or the other, but I think based on the movies, we'd have to conclude no. Luke activated Vader's saber w no problem in Ben's place. Han used Luke's saber to cut open the tauntaun. Finn was able to light it up without there being any trick to it (and Han and Maz didn't give him any tips or expect any issues).

S: Okay, so, Finn's a well-trained Stormtrooper, proficient in the use of ground combat weapons (but apparently not trained to be a gunner or pilot, altho he picks it up pretty quickly), and those skills keep him alive when he's brandishing a lightsaber. I guess I'll allow that. All in all, the First Order's troopers certainly seem to perform better than those of the Empire 30 years ago. Still, I would've been pleased if some scenery-chewing by Hux and/or Ren could have happened against the backdrop of First Order troopers engaged in physical combat training. Staves, swords, hand-to-hand.

J: Let me jump back to something you said about Finn. That there's nothing to back up a Force-y pedigree for him. I'm not so sure about that. I think the fact that his conditioning breaks under fire is a tick in favor of Force-ness. True, no one would be surprised if the average galactic citizen panicked or froze when thrown into a deadly battle zone, but these are Stormtroopers. He's one trooper out of four transports who is shocked at the scene. And why? Because he can feel the pain and deaths of the troopers' victims.

S: But Phasma sent him for Reconditioning. That Reconditioning even exists means that this—a crack-up—happens sometimes, right?

J: Maybe, but what about when Kylo's gaze holds on Finn in the aftermath of the village massacre. What is it that he senses in/about Finn? Okay, maybe it's the beginning of a conscience, the cracking of conditioning, which might stand out in a sea of otherwise well-programmed troopers' psyches. But is that something that a Jedi notices in a passive way?

S: Sure, why not? Especially if he's keen on trying to find a Resistance fighter, right?

J: Maybe, maybe. But I think it's at least just as likely that his attention would be drawn by someone who is stronger than average w the Force, or Force-sensitive.

S: And don't forget how enraged Kylo is when he catches up to Finn. He screams at him—Traitor! I'd say that it's that element that Ren senses in Finn on Jakku. Call it whatever you want, conscience, independent thought, whatever, it's betrayal in Kylo's mind, and he sensed the seed of it. When some First Order underling mentions that a trooper helped the Resistance pilot escape, he knew who it was: FN-2187. Not because he's strong w/the Force, but because that seed had sprouted.

J: For a guy who turned on his master, Kylo's pretty ticked off about disloyalty.

S: Ah, but in Kylo's head, he struggles to be loyal—to Darth Vader.

J: Right, right. Okay, before we leave Jakku, I have a theory about weapons technology in the universe of TFA. I think that since ROTJ, modern weapons and ammo have shifted from energy-based to particle-based. Remember anyone (not in some kind of armor) who got hit by a blaster in the original trilogy? I can actually only think of Leia, once with a blaster set on stun in STAR WARS, and once by a random shot on Endor in ROTJ. The stun left no mark. The other shot seemed to leave a burn mark. Oh! And Greedo, of course! There's no splatter in the booth or wall to clean up, just a smoking corpse, right? Smoked, sizzled. Don't know what a stun setting would really be, more microwaves than laser? Something that makes you feel sick? Well, whatever it is, I'm pretty sure the First Order doesn't have that setting on their weapons. So, what kind of effect *does* the First Order's weaponry have? Well, this is the first time since the Mos Eisley cantina that I remember seeing blood drawn in the SW universe.

J: Hrm… Y'know, I wanted to say that it was the First Order's weapons specifically and exclusively that went particle and flesh-tearing, but the only battle bloodshed I can remember now is trooper blood and Kylo Ren's, inflicted by Resistance and Wookiee weapons. Chewie got hit, and ended up being bandaged, but I don't remember seeing blood. In any case, I think this is a sign that most of the ammo in TFA is some kind of charged slug/particulate. Rail guns. Maybe Chewie's bowcaster has always been one, but without some updated recoil buffering tech, so it takes a physically strong individual to use one without falling down.

S: So, Chewie updated his bowcaster at some point and that's why we get to see Han use it without knocking himself on his backside?

J: Sure, why not? That works. Maybe this change in weapons tech happens on several scales. I mean, what the heck is the beam that StarKiller base fires? Some kind of supercharged plasma? Programmable plasma? It's described by the Resistance as a "hyperspace weapon." It's definitely slower than light and a superlaser, right? But Hux crows about how the Republic homeworld is, like, super distant from StarKiller base, so… Huh? In any case, it's got to be physical matter. And what was up with the beam splitting and hitting multiple targets at the end? First I thought it destroyed a single planet and its moons, but given what characters say about it after the fact, it apparntly takes out all the planets in the Hosnian system. Was the tip of the beam actually some kind of charged capsule with multiple warheads?

S: "Magic Missile? Y'know, for attacking the darkness?" Yeah, I got nothing.

J: And how the heck can everyone on Maz Kanada's smuggler's bar planet see the StarKiller beam and the burninating Hosnian system in their sky? They must've been super-close.

S: Well, soon after that, the First Order and the Resistance both show up, so maybe it just works out that every planet we're concerned about happens to be jammed together in the same sector or something?

J: Don't forget Hux's boast about how distant Hosnia is from the technological terror the First Order has constructed.

S: Right. Right. Hey, aren't YOU supposed to be defending the movie?

J: Supposed to. I guess this isn't defensible. Umm… Gravity lensing? Bleah. Someone ask Neil deGrasse Tyson about it.

S: Not sure he's got the cred for it, really. I mean, if we were talking strict science fiction, sure, but I've always thought of the STAR WARS universe as fantasy. It's several leaps removed from a "what if" that you extrapolate from science and history as we know it, right? Not that that's a hard and fast definition of science fiction, but, well, knights, monsters, magic? Fantasy, right?

J: Yeah, but Neil's weighed in on some fantastic stuff, if only to offer a scientist's view-slash-rationalization, consistent w the conceits of the fantastic and the rules of the real.

J: Or something. Anyhow…

S: Right. I suppose "hyperspace weapon," or whatever they called it are the magic words that sort of explain it away. What would be great about a "hyperspace" weapon? It might travel great distances in a short/shorter time, by leaving real space for hyperspace for part of its journey. It might, on contact, send matter it encounters into hyperspace, ripping it apart and scattering it. Maybe the warhead is a hyperspatial bomb, and the beam we see is the energy needed to get the warhead beneath the surface of a target so that when it opens a hyperspace gate, it implodes the planet's core?

J: Sure, why not?

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More later…

Keep on keepin' on~

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS: rambling first thoughts/comments *SPOILERS*

Just gonna rattle off some random thoughts and comments on/after my first screening of STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS. If you haven't seen the movie yet, STOP NOW, FOR HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!~

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I do *not* love Supreme Leader Snoke. He appears via hologram to Kylo and Hux. He has a humanoid appearance, but his projection makes him appear as a giant. But these Dark types seem to enjoy magnification, right (see Emperor's holograms)? He looks maybe a little REBELS Inquisitor-y. He's played by Andy Serkis. I wonder if there's a Great and Powerful Oz thing going on here, y'know? That the hologram is a facade, hiding a less imposing figure, or someone who's leading a double life, a la Darth Sidious / Palpatine, perhaps?

But it seems implied at least that Supreme Leader trained Kylo Ren, seduced Ben Solo, so that would have happened in person. And he asks some First Order goon to bring Kylo to him, altho maybe he meant into his holographic presence? Bleah.

Would be interesting if he has not been seen in the flesh by First Order minions. What if he's an AI? Could he be the Emperor, re-animated or inhabiting a spare cloned body?

Maz says something interesting. She's lived a very long time and says there's always evil, in different faces. She mentions the Sith, then the Empire, now the First Order. Differentiating the Sith and the Empire was interesting to me. Also the notion of a repeating cycle or pendulum of history. Maybe a little bleak, too. Would've been interesting if she mentioned a memorable period of peace, tho, wouldn't it?

Only mention of clones/cloning: Someone—Kylo? Hux?—scolds his troopers by threatening to replace them with clones.

Kylo's tantrums are fun.

Han mentions to Leia that Ben had too much of Vader in him. Kim suggested that that might've manifested itself as hurting his sister. That's kind of perfect.

Han calling out to Kylo Ren—"Ben!" *That* really got to me.

Han's death didn't really. For a little kid sitting near Jeff and Kim, tho, it was devastating. I saw it telegraphed in the movie a few minutes earlier. Some bit of dialogue that ended w something like "It would take a miracle…" led into a shot of Han and Chewie making their way into the StarKiller facility they want to blow up. In that moment, I knew he'd die. *sigh*

I immediately flashed ahead and questioned how/whether Rey would get to pilot the Falcon. Am I a cold hearted bastard for that?

Gotta say, as natural a pilot as she is, she failed to follow proper Falcon protocol—she wasn't wearing Han's clothes!

What's up w the blast from StarKiller Base? It seemed like it erupts as a beam of supercharged plasma, but when it got close to the target planet, the beam split, its branches tagging and destroying moons and satellites along with the planet itself. Weird, that. Is it a missile? With warheads? Maybe ammo HAS changed since ROTJ. Heavier on the particle and lighter on the energy? Is there such a thing as "stun" with the First Order's blasters? I would've been just fine with bloodless injuries and deaths caused by blaster fire. Nix that and the land Sarlacc's on Han's freighter and maybe the movie could've gone PG, right? Or are the Force torture scenes on their own enough to warrant the PG-13?

I would've liked more over-the-shoulder looks at just how that base got around and how close/far away it had to be to destroy a planet. STAR WARS gave us the progress of the DS around Yavin when it was getting into position to destroy its fourth moon. Somehow, the Resistance on the ground on Maz's world were able to see the destruction of whatever planet it was (seemed pretty heavily developed) that StarKiller wacked.

The wacked planet was the seat of the Republic, right? (Sorry, can't remember these planet/location names yet.) That's pretty F'd up. So, that was basically Alderaan again (keeping in theme w the movie and callbacks/echoes/deja views), right?

And did StarKiller kill that planet's sun? Was it in the same system at the time? What would we see from Earth if Jupiter exploded or imploded (without creating a singularity). Actually, I guess we'd want to see a planet burnt to a crisp, not exactly explode.

I think that Kes was not on Jakku by chance. He's there to watch over Rey from afar, the way Kenobi watched over Luke. Poe is a most-trusted pilot. Kes is his father, and of Luke and Leia's generation.

Saw a headline about Daniel Craig having a cameo in the film and guessed that he must've been the Jedi mind-tricked trooper!

I knew Simon Pegg was in it as a creature, but did not recognize him as the junk merchant, whom I wasn't all that impressed with, actually. Foo.

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More later. Maybe sooner. May the Force be with you~
aka
Keep on keepin' on~

STAR WARS : Rey & Finn : All in the Family?

I know I’m gonna short circuit some power converters with my crazy talk here, but I’ve just gotta get it out of my head and into words in front of me…

First, let me say that I’ve done my best to limit my exposure to anything related to STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS online, official, rumor-milled, or fan-tastic. So, it may be that some of my nutty notions are already contradicted by some official something or other or in sync with other fan conjecture. I honestly do not know.

The trailers do seem to be everywhere online, but I’ve always preferred to see my trailers on a big screen before a feature. I admit I *did* click to watch the teaser trailer online last year. The second one I saw on the big screen before a feature earlier this year. So far I have yet to see the third one, but hope to see it as a big screen preview soon. No interest in watching it during halftime of sportsball. I was at the movie theater waiting for tickets to go on sale when it premiered anyway = )

Crazy talk begins after the art…

Okay, there are two apparently Force-strong youngsters featured in the next film: trooper Finn and speeder Rey. Of course, behind that mask, Kylo Ren might very well be a third (twins run in families, right?), but I'm just gonna focus on these two for this post. Now, we know that the Force has been strong with a certain bloodline for six movies.

The Force is strong in my family…

Sure, Luke may have met someone special in the 30-ish years since ROTJ, but we know that Leia and Han were already in “I know” back then, and it’s not difficult to imagine their romantic trajectory leading to space matrimony and family, right? And thusly, young Rey joins the Solos.

But, given their personalities, and 30-ish years, it’s also not impossible to imagine there being some bumps in the relationship, right? Maybe even a space divorce or separation? Who might be around to comfort and charm a freshly un-Solo-ed hot-to-trot Princess?

You truly belong with us here among the clouds…

Welcome, Finn Calrissian! Crazy talk? Maybe. But I *like* it. Think of the possibilities. Note that I’m just playing w the last name here.

Is FORCE AWAKENS set actually 30 years after ROTJ? I have it in my head that it is, but can’t think of where/how I picked that up.

Maybe Finn is the older half-sibling. How much time passed between EMPIRE and RETURN? I mean, how long was frozen Han hanging in Jabba’s palace? Could Leia and Lando have hooked up sometime then? And Leia disappeared to a spa world for a few months or so? Leaving her son with a decent family (maybe an aged clone?) to be raised in safety, as seems to be the accepted practice in this far far away galaxy.

Or, he could be the younger. Perhaps Rey was conceived on Han and Leia’s space honeymoon. Some years later, while on a routine mission or beer run, a bounty hunter catches up w Han and Chewie in a bad way and in the wake of the ensuing chase/confrontation/battle, the pair were presumed killed. Maybe they even faked their deaths.

We’re home…

And Lando was the good friend of the family until he became something more and along came Finn!~

Of course, a long time ago “defense of marriage” might not have been such a big deal, and Leia being involved with Han and Lando could be part of a completely non-scandalous triangular relationship and/or union. No big whup. Still, I like the potential for drama.

Perhaps Leia and Luke (and Han) keep the their sibling connection a secret from everyone else. Might not be the best PR to advertise that Luke and Leia are the children of the Emperor’s Sith Lord enforcer, right? A secret even from Han and Leia’s (and Lando’s) children, who begin to discover their abilities and destinies when thrown into whatever dangerous adventure Episode 7 holds for them.

Yeah, Yoda would say they’re too old to start any training, but I think Luke’s school of Jedi training disagrees. Having more life and living done before training should be seen as a plus. I think that Luke will be responsible for a Jedi Reformation. While there’s a dark side and a light side to the Force, it’s not natural for any sentient social being to only live in one.

Remember, in eps 1 thru 3 (if you acknowledge them), there was a prophecy about One who would restore balance to the Force. Whether that One is Anakin or Luke is debatable I think, but consider the assumption that prophecy is built on: the Force was out of balance. The polarization of its character was impressed upon it. The teachings and training were effective, true. The Force “worked,” it flowed, it obeyed its wielders’ wills on both sides, but is a near-monastic culture really the best kind for individuals who are so connected to a life-force? And if drawing exclusive from the so-called dark side does whatever it did to Sidious/the Emperor, becoming more of a gaping maw than powerful being, well, what’s really the point?

Sorry, I could probably ramble on and on, and not at all eloquently, bleah. But if any of that sounds interesting, feel free to ask me about Anakin’s supposed divine conception. =)

Keep on keepin’ on~
aka
May the Force be with you~