***SPOILER ALERT***
This thread contains SPOILERS! Lots and lots of spoilers!
Another thread was started about The Force Awakens, but it started with the question of whether anyone else walked out of the movie. As such, the thread just didn't feel like the appropriate place to discuss all of our impressions about the movie, reveal spoilers, share the tidbits we may have gleaned as to possible future plot points, or hash through all the interwebz gossip and speculation as to Rey's parentage. So, I decided to start a new thread. Below is what I posted in the other thread, but I've also added some extra comments at the end, including a SPOILER ALERT.
*****************
From previous thread:
I sat through A New Hope as a 10-year old girl in 1977 and fell in love with everything Star Wars was. From the moment that first star destroyer glided onto the screen, I was hooked. I grew up with it, had the posters on my walls, was a card-carrying member of the original fan club, and even majored in Film Production during my first go-round in college because I was convinced I wanted to work in special effects. The first book I ever wrote, back in high school, was a 200-page Star Wars fanfic. I read EVERY DAMN BOOK of the massive extended universe (and may be harboring a tad bit of resentment that they've been unceremoniously tossed in the non-canon garbage heap). Star Wars was a huge part of my world. The original trilogy could do no wrong in my eyes.
When the prequels came out, I was convinced they would be everything I wanted. Unfortunately, they didn't look, sound or feel like the Star Wars universe I knew and loved. I did grow to enjoy them eventually and I appreciated having more backstory, but they never took hold of my heart or imagination like the original movies.
So, while I have been incredibly excited about The Force Awakens, there has also been an undercurrent of trepidation rippling through me for weeks. Was I getting my hopes up again, only to be underwhelmed the way I felt when I finished watching The Phantom Menace?
I bought tickets for myself, husband and son weeks ago ($18.94 each for IMAX 3D). I've been on spoiler lockdown, threatening to unfriend or do bodily harm to anyone who dared reveal even the tiniest detail. We waited in line for almost 3 hours (we were second in line), wearing our vintage Star Wars t-shirts. The excitement was tangible. But still, that nagging fear gnawed away somewhere deep down inside me.
I needn't have worried. Yes, the movie relied very heavily on nostalgia, but I desperately wanted nostalgia. I needed it. I wanted to be 10-years old again, transported to another time and place in a galaxy far, far away. I wanted this movie to be unmistakably tied to the original trilogy in a way that would be impossible to unravel. I wanted the familial conflict, I wanted a continuation of the original characters, I wanted a Corellian freighter-load of throwback references and tie-ins.
The Force Awakens delivered everything I was hoping for, and then some. The scenes that played out so similarly to scenes from the originals were some of my favorites. For 2 hours, I was that 10-year old little girl again, eyes wide with wonder and literally sitting forward on the edge of my seat. Now, much like I was after A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, I'm left with a dozen unanswered questions about what comes next and the secrets yet to be revealed. The next installment cannot possibly come soon enough.
*******
SPOILER ALERT!!! If you don't want your virgin experience of Star Wars ruined, RUN AWAY NOW!
Okay, so now I've spent the last 24 hours combing through every reddit thread, review and nerdy website I can find to read opinions on Rey's parentage (Oh, please, please, please let it be Luke! But who would her mother be???), what happened to turn Ben/Kylo Ren to the dark side (Luke, what the hell did you do to the kid during training?!?), who Snoke really is (Could he be Darth Plagueis, who legend says had found the key to immortality, and maybe was only thought to have been killed?). So many questions, so few answers.
My personal feeling is that Rey is Luke's daughter. Star Wars has always been, at it's heart, a story about the conflict within the Skywalker family. It would make sense that the two new wielders of the opposing sides of the Force would both be Skywalkers. If Rey and Kylo are first cousins, one being on the light side and the other on the dark, it would continue the family saga into the next generation. I just have a hard time seeing them inject Rey as a random character from random parentage, with no Skywalker bloodline.
I know the extended universe was thrown out, but there were some obvious things that had been borrowed from it. Ben/Kylo seems to be a reference to Jacen, who turned to the dark side. Ruthless, but conflicted. Rey seems to be a combination of Jaina and Anakin (Han and Leia's youngest son). She's a phenomenal pilot, a tinkerer, and is extremely strong in natural force ability... even stronger that Kylo, it seems. So if they're borrowing elements from the EU, who's to say they wouldn't also recreate Mara Jade in some manner?
That's it for my spoilers, so it's okay to look again!
This thread contains SPOILERS! Lots and lots of spoilers!
Another thread was started about The Force Awakens, but it started with the question of whether anyone else walked out of the movie. As such, the thread just didn't feel like the appropriate place to discuss all of our impressions about the movie, reveal spoilers, share the tidbits we may have gleaned as to possible future plot points, or hash through all the interwebz gossip and speculation as to Rey's parentage. So, I decided to start a new thread. Below is what I posted in the other thread, but I've also added some extra comments at the end, including a SPOILER ALERT.
*****************
From previous thread:
I sat through A New Hope as a 10-year old girl in 1977 and fell in love with everything Star Wars was. From the moment that first star destroyer glided onto the screen, I was hooked. I grew up with it, had the posters on my walls, was a card-carrying member of the original fan club, and even majored in Film Production during my first go-round in college because I was convinced I wanted to work in special effects. The first book I ever wrote, back in high school, was a 200-page Star Wars fanfic. I read EVERY DAMN BOOK of the massive extended universe (and may be harboring a tad bit of resentment that they've been unceremoniously tossed in the non-canon garbage heap). Star Wars was a huge part of my world. The original trilogy could do no wrong in my eyes.
When the prequels came out, I was convinced they would be everything I wanted. Unfortunately, they didn't look, sound or feel like the Star Wars universe I knew and loved. I did grow to enjoy them eventually and I appreciated having more backstory, but they never took hold of my heart or imagination like the original movies.
So, while I have been incredibly excited about The Force Awakens, there has also been an undercurrent of trepidation rippling through me for weeks. Was I getting my hopes up again, only to be underwhelmed the way I felt when I finished watching The Phantom Menace?
I bought tickets for myself, husband and son weeks ago ($18.94 each for IMAX 3D). I've been on spoiler lockdown, threatening to unfriend or do bodily harm to anyone who dared reveal even the tiniest detail. We waited in line for almost 3 hours (we were second in line), wearing our vintage Star Wars t-shirts. The excitement was tangible. But still, that nagging fear gnawed away somewhere deep down inside me.
I needn't have worried. Yes, the movie relied very heavily on nostalgia, but I desperately wanted nostalgia. I needed it. I wanted to be 10-years old again, transported to another time and place in a galaxy far, far away. I wanted this movie to be unmistakably tied to the original trilogy in a way that would be impossible to unravel. I wanted the familial conflict, I wanted a continuation of the original characters, I wanted a Corellian freighter-load of throwback references and tie-ins.
The Force Awakens delivered everything I was hoping for, and then some. The scenes that played out so similarly to scenes from the originals were some of my favorites. For 2 hours, I was that 10-year old little girl again, eyes wide with wonder and literally sitting forward on the edge of my seat. Now, much like I was after A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, I'm left with a dozen unanswered questions about what comes next and the secrets yet to be revealed. The next installment cannot possibly come soon enough.
*******
SPOILER ALERT!!! If you don't want your virgin experience of Star Wars ruined, RUN AWAY NOW!
Okay, so now I've spent the last 24 hours combing through every reddit thread, review and nerdy website I can find to read opinions on Rey's parentage (Oh, please, please, please let it be Luke! But who would her mother be???), what happened to turn Ben/Kylo Ren to the dark side (Luke, what the hell did you do to the kid during training?!?), who Snoke really is (Could he be Darth Plagueis, who legend says had found the key to immortality, and maybe was only thought to have been killed?). So many questions, so few answers.
My personal feeling is that Rey is Luke's daughter. Star Wars has always been, at it's heart, a story about the conflict within the Skywalker family. It would make sense that the two new wielders of the opposing sides of the Force would both be Skywalkers. If Rey and Kylo are first cousins, one being on the light side and the other on the dark, it would continue the family saga into the next generation. I just have a hard time seeing them inject Rey as a random character from random parentage, with no Skywalker bloodline.
I know the extended universe was thrown out, but there were some obvious things that had been borrowed from it. Ben/Kylo seems to be a reference to Jacen, who turned to the dark side. Ruthless, but conflicted. Rey seems to be a combination of Jaina and Anakin (Han and Leia's youngest son). She's a phenomenal pilot, a tinkerer, and is extremely strong in natural force ability... even stronger that Kylo, it seems. So if they're borrowing elements from the EU, who's to say they wouldn't also recreate Mara Jade in some manner?
That's it for my spoilers, so it's okay to look again!
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