Star Wars Concept Art Shows That George Lucas’s Influence Can Be Seen In The Force Awakens & The Last Jedi

We’re not even done with the Sequel Trilogy yet, with the third movie just less than two years away, and fans are already wondering about what could have been had the Maker himself decided to stick around to direct at least The Force Awakens like he had originally planned to do. Some newly-unveiled concept art released in time for The Last Jedi suggest that fans who are claiming that J. J. Abrams and Rian Johnson are disrespecting his vision might be missing the point – because some of their ideas were based on his own.

 

 

Slashfilm has just released a new report that discusses some concept art that was created back when Episode VII was a pitch that Lucas came up with – before a director for the project was even selected. I should absolutely stress that Disney and Lucasfilm ultimately did not use Lucas’s original pitch for a three-movie story arc. Lucas has said so himself, J. J. Abrams backed this up, and Mark Hamill has lamented that they weren’t more in-touch with those ideas. But the influence is still there, as we can parse out some information from this concept art that ultimately suggest that some core ideas were used.

 

  • Episode VII was always intended to be an origin story about a young girl named Kira who aspired to be a Jedi. The Force Awakens has Rey filling that role.
  • Darth Vader’s grandchildren would play significantly into the plot of Episode VII. While it’s only been confirmed that he only has a single grandchild – Kylo Ren – said character is the primary antagonist of the Sequel Trilogy as of The Last Jedi, and there’s still a chance (however slim) that there may be another Skywalker.
  • In Episode VII, Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi, exiled himself to a faraway planet, disillusioned with the Jedi path before Kira would convince him to open his mind and save his friends. Lucasfilm opted to tell this story over the course of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi instead of in one film.
  • In Episode VII or the sequels to it, Leia Organa would utilize the Force, even if she may not have become a Jedi herself. In The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, she uses the Force passively to connect with Han and her son, and in the latter movie, we actually see her use the Force in a more active way. (Source.)

 

With all this in mind, I feel as though two things are necessary. First, a fringe minority of the fandom need to apologize to J. J. Abrams and Rian Johnson (and especially the latter), because both directors have been hit with a torrent of personal attacks from so-called “fans” that are quite frankly uncalled for. Regardless of whether or not their creative decisions were based on Lucas’s ideas, nobody deserves to get a death threat over a fictional story. (Thankfully, the vast majority of fans are better than this, and I applaud anyone else who has condemned this behavior.) Second, I think that all of the fans who have expressed disappointment in the Sequel Trilogy while claiming that Lucas’s vision has been completely disrespected need to re-evaluate the new movies knowing that they’re made with his influence in mind.

 

Criticism of the Sequel Trilogy is absolutely fair, but doing so on the ground that “they didn’t respect the vision that George Lucas came up with” is an argument that we can safely debunk at this point. It might not play out in the way he would have told the story had he been steering the ship, but it’s clear at this point that the creators of these new films are paying utmost respect to Lucas’s work. We won’t get a clear idea of what the George Lucas Sequel Trilogy would have looked like until at least 2019 – but for now, it appears as if many of his ideas did, in fact, make it into the Disney-produced Sequel Trilogy after all. I’m personally of the opinion that the Sequel Trilogy has largely been brilliant so far, but I also think that we need to see what his original ideas were eventually. If that takes a while, then I’m more than happy to wait.

 

 

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Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

Grant Davis (Pomojema)

Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

203 thoughts on “Star Wars Concept Art Shows That George Lucas’s Influence Can Be Seen In The Force Awakens & The Last Jedi

  • December 20, 2017 at 5:21 pm
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    Luke Skywalker was a failure!!!

    That’s right, one of the most powerful Jedi ever was a big fat failure. For the first time in the saga, he actually failed at something. So, for some fans, this is clearly hard to accept.

    This was the legend who destroyed the Death Star, rescued his friends from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt, and helped bring down the Empire by turning his father from the dark to the light. But, he was setting himself up for a fall, as the legend was about to become a victim of his own success.

    After everything he went through, the greatest adversity he ever faced was himself, and he blew it big time. In Empire on Dagobah, when he faced Vader, the Force tried to teach him this, hence when Vader’s mask exploded, it revealed not Vader’s face, but his very own. The fact is, Ben Solo could not be turned. He is too consumed with the dark side. Luke didn’t fail Ben, Ben failed Ben. But, Luke could not accept this, because as I have said earlier, he’s never failed anything in his life. He’s had a few setbacks, but he never truly failed, until now. As Yoda said to him on Ahch-to, the greatest lesson in life is failure. It’s ok to fail. It’s not about the failure, but how you deal with it. This was the one lesson Luke failed to learn. It took Rey turning up on Ahch-to and Yoda’s intervention for him to finally grasp this.

    • December 20, 2017 at 5:46 pm
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      How dare you!!!!!
      Just kidding. Good analysis. What I took from the film is that heroes are just regular people. And any regular person can become a hero. It wasn’t until the broom boy scene that I realized the entirety of star wars is about how regular (even down-trodden) people can become heroes if they choose to do what’s right. Loved it.

    • December 20, 2017 at 5:49 pm
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      “For the first time in the saga, he actually failed at something.”

      I assume you’ve seen ESB, which is nothing but a string of failures for Luke — being knocked senseless and nearly eaten by a wampa, nearly frozen to death before being rescued by Han, being shot of the the sky and nearly trampled to death by an Imperial walker, crashing his X-wing looking for Yoda, failing at the cave, failing to raise his X-wing from the swamp, being beaten badly — and literally disarmed — by the evil henchman who turned out to be his father.

      Luke constantly failed. It’s what made him such a relatable protagonist. It’s what made his successes so much more rewarding.

      • December 20, 2017 at 5:57 pm
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        None of those failures are anything of major importance, though. In the end, he succeeds at everything he sets out to do in that major chapter of his life that was dealing with the Empire. Blaming yourself for the failure of the revival of the Jedi is in itself a bit of a bigger deal.

        • December 21, 2017 at 11:48 am
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          I understand your point and I’ve been reading it a lot. I guess I just don’t understand why someone who has had legendary success, needs to have it balanced with colossal failure to come off as human.

          I always got the impression that one of the more important themes in Star Wars and to Luke Skywalker, is family. Given that, I don’t see how it wouldn’t have been considered a big enough challenge for Luke that his padawan/nephew turned to the dark side on his watch. I think the issue is that for some, running away didn’t make him a regular dude. It made Luke Skywalker out to be selfish, irresponsible, and cowardly, even if the movie tried not to frame his decision in such a light.

          • December 21, 2017 at 12:02 pm
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            I don’t think legendary success requires colossal failure for balance and humanity. At the same time, however, just because Luke has his little failings leading up to one big victory doesn’t mean he’s immune to future failings, big or small, in the future.

            Having Luke take it as hard as he does in these films is, admittedly, just one storytelling option, but it’s not as impossible to reconcile with his previous appearances as some detractors claim it is.

          • December 22, 2017 at 8:34 am
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            I get what you’re saying, and I totally agree with everything you said in your last paragraph. I didn’t like the option Johnson chose, but it was his to do what he wished with.

            I do hope Abrams can redeem Luke in Episode 9 somehow though haha

          • December 22, 2017 at 9:11 am
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            Fair enough. He did get enough of a redemption at the end for me personally, but I’d definitely be glad to see more of him in Episode IX. With the unfortunate passing of Carrie Fisher and whatever they decide to do to address that, he could have to step up and take on a bigger role than originally envisaged.

            Envy Abrams, I do not.

      • December 20, 2017 at 6:01 pm
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        Exactly. Even with his ESB failures, he was still a hero and still likable. He was not the least bit likable in TLJ. Rian Johnson did not understand the Luke character.

      • December 20, 2017 at 6:19 pm
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        It also showed that as a Jedi Luke was rather weak. Never the super being that so many believed he was. It didnt take Jedi skills for him to win in the end. It took his fathers internal battle being overcome by love of son and daughter. Wasnt the force that ultimately beat the Emperor. Love beat back the dark side. And for anyone moaning why didnt Snoke know that Kylo was going after him. Why didnt the Emperor know Vader was going to pick him up and throw him down the shaft?

        • December 21, 2017 at 3:58 am
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          A super is superman. Jedi Luke is still a man and an old man to boot. You can’t expect him to suddenly be jumping around like a rabbit to satisfy your needs…….

          • December 21, 2017 at 4:12 am
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            That isnt what I wanted. I was talking about Luke of OT. He wasnt the all powerful Jedi. I was perfectly happy with what he did. To me the true showing of the strongest Jedi isnt is/she the best with a light saber. More that a light saber isnt really needed any longer. As much as I enjoyed the Yoda and Palpatine fight in ROTS. I think it would have been better had they used no light sabers at all.

      • December 20, 2017 at 6:23 pm
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        They were not failures though, they were just incidents he encountered during his character arc. None, of which derailed his journey to becoming a Jedi and restore peace and balance to the galaxy.

    • December 20, 2017 at 5:51 pm
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      Spot on! Once Luke learned that last lesson, he finally became the legend that everyone thought he was.

    • December 20, 2017 at 5:52 pm
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      He even got his redemption and became an inspiration for a new generation of Force wielders and the new rebellion.

      • December 20, 2017 at 6:12 pm
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        Yes, like the Broom Boy, the new iconic Star Wars character, courtesy of Rian Johnson !

        • December 20, 2017 at 6:45 pm
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          Disney TV series here we come…

        • December 21, 2017 at 9:52 am
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          You didn’t get the point of that scene, did you? It’s not about the Broom Boy as a character, it’s what he represents that counts.

          • December 21, 2017 at 4:17 pm
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            It just occurred to me that if we don’t get Broom boy’s back story, and if he’s not the son of Luke Han Leia Chewy and C3PO, and if he doesn’t kick some a$$ before he dies, we are going to have to go through this whole thing again in 30 years. My expectations are maxed.

          • December 21, 2017 at 4:27 pm
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            Hopefully advances in medical science will allow us to know how much Lucas and Hamill share our frustrations with the follow-up in the flesh by then too. Expectations also maxed!

      • December 21, 2017 at 9:08 am
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        Nope, he didn’t kick enough ass, therefore failure.

        • December 21, 2017 at 9:46 am
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          I keep wondering what people expected. Isn’t it enough that he projected himself across the galaxy through sheer force of will (pun intended) and was such a badass after that? Did fans expect him to come in, guns a-blazing, and take out the entire First Order all by himself?

          http://e.lvme.me/rovlta9.jpg

          • December 21, 2017 at 10:15 am
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            Yes. He flat-out tells Rey how unrealistic that is, but yes, the fanboys still expected that.

  • December 20, 2017 at 5:29 pm
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    If I remember correctly, and I’m sure someone can look this up, back when they were filming the Luke / Rey scene for episode VII someone posted a photo on this site of a “cast board” where the code name for Daisy Ridley’s character was Kira. I belive the same name was used for Daisy’s trailer when they were filming in the forest. Interesting that was the name George Lucas originally planed for that character.

    • December 20, 2017 at 5:35 pm
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      I expected them to reveal that Kira was her real name.

  • December 20, 2017 at 5:32 pm
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    Death threats are ridiculous.
    However, there are many of us who are more than disappointed with The Last Jedi. I actually liked the Force Awakens, and I accepted Han Solo’s death. I was willing to see where the story went. I think it is a very bad idea to bring back all of our “original heroes” who had such great chemistry and character development, only to kill them off one movie at a time. Let’s be honest. You could argue that Han Solo’s death helped move the Kylo character along, but they killed Luke only because they didn’t know how to use him. They could have been creative and let the originals be supporting characters. They took the lazy way out. Kill them.
    They built the hype around Rey’s parentage and Snoke’s background. They created the interest in Snoke’s origins with his caved-in face, saying he was a force-user but not a Sith, etc. JJ Abrams set it up for Rian to push these storylines. Rian had a different agenda. It was entirely unsatisfying to many of us. I get that some of you liked it, but many of us did not.
    Luke tossing his father’s light saber over his shoulder was symbolic of Rian Johnson arrogantly tossing our expectations (Yes, EXPECTATIONS) of Star Wars aside. We watched Luke develop over 3 films and 6 years, so we had certain expectations. You can take the character to unexpected places without trashing 3 films worth of character development.

    • December 20, 2017 at 5:52 pm
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      Amen. Very well said.

    • December 20, 2017 at 5:52 pm
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      Amen. Very well said.

    • December 20, 2017 at 7:01 pm
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      Yep, exactly, EXPECTATIONS that had just been given to us just two years before from the executive producer of this movie, damn, how could I have been so stupid as to hold the expectations that the previous movie just created for us?

    • December 20, 2017 at 7:01 pm
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      Yep, exactly, EXPECTATIONS that had just been given to us just two years before from the executive producer of this movie, damn, how could I have been so stupid as to hold the expectations that the previous movie just created for us?

  • December 20, 2017 at 5:37 pm
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    Apologize? Haha why apologize if at the end of the day the fans will pay to see Star Wars. We buy a ticket, a blu ray, or any merchandise we are entitled to our opinion.

  • December 20, 2017 at 5:37 pm
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    Apologize? Haha why apologize if at the end of the day the fans will pay to see Star Wars. We buy a ticket, a blu ray, or any merchandise we are entitled to our opinion.

    • December 20, 2017 at 6:33 pm
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      People who made personal attacks should apologise is what was said, not people just having a negative opinion of the film.

      • December 21, 2017 at 3:08 am
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        Precisely! That was the point of the whole “criticism is fine” section. There’s a clear difference and unfortunately a subset of fans don’t recognize what it is.

        – Pomojema

      • December 21, 2017 at 3:08 am
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        Precisely! That was the point of the whole “criticism is fine” section. There’s a clear difference and unfortunately a subset of fans don’t recognize what it is.

        – Pomojema

  • December 20, 2017 at 5:47 pm
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    So well said. It is so sad that there are people out there that think JJ an Rian went out of their way to “trash” Lucas’ creation. There will be some changes and evolution in the Star Wars universe. Lucas even evolved his original vision. “The Star Wars” anyone? I loved the Last Jedi. It was fresh and different. I has made me love Star Wars even more (if possible). The good guys didn’t win. Luke failed and then learned to finally be a true Jedi master (thanks to a great last lesson/smack down from Yoda). I am 48 and I came out of that movie feeling like I was 8 and just saw Star Wars for the first time.

    • December 20, 2017 at 6:47 pm
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      I think you don’t see some of the important things from star wars, but thats ok, because you see others, you are a kind of fan, just like there are other kinds, I think if the movie have X-wings and Tie-fighters and stormtroppers you will be happy (Something that I hated to be the same, just updated), I’m speculating, ok? I’m curious to know how you think.

      Check this, if you were totally happy with Yoda in TLJ and there was nothing that bothered you about it, then you are that kind of fan I’m thinking, and that’s totally ok, maybe this is better because you are completely happy with this movies, and can’t be disappointed, you are the kind of fan Disney/LF wants.

      Actually, we all are the kind of fans they want because we all will give them money doesn’t matter what they give us. :/

      • December 20, 2017 at 7:52 pm
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        Wow! You really missed the mark with your comment, mate. I am not just some blind, happy with anything Star Wars fan by a long shot. There was some things I think that could have been done better in Last Jedi. I thought Force Awakens was okay, not great. Didn’t like most of the prequels. I REALLY didn’t like the Ewoks saving the day in Return of the Jedi. Did these things make me hate Star Wars? No. But I am a long way from being a blind, easily lead around fan that would be happy with any old thing labeled Star Wars. If I didn’t like Last Jedi, I would let anyone know it.

        I guess you missed my point that Last Jedi seemed to do something different. It evolved the story. We were presented with something fresh with no set formula. I was actually getting warren out by the same old formula. All stories need to evolve and move forward. If not it dies a sad slow death.

        Oh, the part about I would be happy as long as there were x-wings, tie fighters, and stormtroopers. Those are things I wish were not in the new movies. I wish they had either updated or came up with new ideas.

        • December 21, 2017 at 7:55 am
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          It’s good to know, I know people who is happy with just that, and call themself fans and “hardcore fans”, it is totally valid too, every person is a fan the way they feel it.

          Maybe I missed your point then, I agree with you about TLJ adding fresh elemnts to SW, presenting evolution, but this is just in part, this movie have a lot that messed up with SW, but it is what I think.

          What I found “disturbing” is that you said you liked the whole movie and wanted to know why, curiosity, but you clarify that now, thanks, for me I don’t know if the good stuff in the movie is enough to make this film great if I think in all the other stuff that I think are not good for a SW movie.

      • December 20, 2017 at 9:12 pm
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        Counterpoint: If you weren’t totally happy with Yoda in TLJ, you aren’t a fan of the character, because Yoda hasn’t been that perfectly realized since literally 1980.

        • December 21, 2017 at 3:46 am
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          This Yoda was two or three steps backward from Empire’s, he didn’t looked like Yoda, something was off. It looked like an amateur imitation, the questoin is why? if they put a lot of effort.

          • December 21, 2017 at 4:20 am
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            I respectfully disagree about his aesthetic appearance, although I thought the first two shots looked a little wonky. Regardless, everything about his role in the film was spot-on. Yoda was a wacky, wise, spunky little gremlin again. It would have rung true for me even if he’d been played by the straight-up disturbing Yoda puppet from Phantom Menace, or the atrocious CGI model of the latter two prequels. Character is about more than just appearance, and Rian and co. got Yoda’s character exactly right.

          • December 21, 2017 at 7:15 am
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            I respectfully say to you that Yoda in TLJ was completely not right, eyes, mouth, skin, face expression, It looked like a cartoon of Yoda, I can understand your point of view because you call cgi yoda “atrocious”, this tells a lot about how you see things, details. My critics are to the look the puppet itself, the movements of the lips are completely wrong, the overall shape was close but not there, and a lot of other things.

            But, you are pointing the personality of Yoda, and how he show up in TLJ, I don’t have complains about it, but I have an observation, when Yoda was wacky/crazy, it was because he was pretending, once Luke knew he has him, Yoda stopped pretending to be that crazy creature, and the wise and more serious Yoda show up, in TLJ they came up with a Yoda that is wacky again, they wanted to bring that Yoda but it is not the same situation anymore.

            I will finish my response with this gif, of your “atrocius” Yoda, I invite you to give me back a comment about it, do you really think this is atrocious?

            https://78.media.tumblr.com/de38f27a4b02cb7f3e8fffcea2c52b58/tumblr_od2g3ssGsk1vnlol1o1_400.gif

          • December 21, 2017 at 7:31 am
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            Yeah, I think that’s pretty bad. I would like to make clear that I have a lot of respect for the artists and myriad VFX teams that brought this version of Yoda to life, but I find the very idea of Yoda being realized as a digital creation to be in direct opposition to the spirit of the character. Just not a fan of the clean, crisp aesthetic, and I understand if you disagree.

            To your point about Yoda’s wackiness, I would respectfully disagree. Even at the very end of his life, Yoda is cracking wise, telling Luke “When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not.” He is wise and funny in equal doses, and when he returns in TLJ, that same ratio exists. This is a Yoda that can both impart lasting wisdom about the nature of teaching to Luke even as he pokes fun at him for not reading the Jedi texts. Yoda always struck this balance with Luke, even at his most serious. Yoda isn’t just a jokester; he’s also a funny little dude, not the humorless crone of the prequels. I found the TLJ scene beautiful. I’m sorry you didn’t.

          • December 21, 2017 at 8:17 am
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            I still think in empire is different situation but, as I said this doesn’t bothered me, Im ok with that…

            The nature of Yoda is not being a puppet o CG, it is way beyond that, he could be only text in a book, if you want, Yoda is Yoda in any way, he is a character, and the reason he was puppet the first time is because of technology. I don’t see Yoda that way I see him as a being, in my mind he exists :), I don’t care if he is made of latex or poligons only that he looks right, and well represented, the spirit is not limited by the technic used to bring him to life.

            Yoda from that gif, for me looks so right for his time in the council, so alive and healthy, and I’m very critic when I see something that is CGI, I would love to see CG version looking like in empire, sick and tired, but I think that will not happen, it didn’t happened with an actual puppet, so what can be expected then, I only hope they make it righ next time.

      • December 21, 2017 at 3:55 am
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        And you are the kind of fan who keep dissing others just because he loved the film. Why do you keep insisting that this is a bad film? Isn’t this your own opinion? Why must you bring others down just because of your own unhappiness? Do we owe you something? Does the world owe you your happiness? Geez.

        • December 21, 2017 at 7:40 am
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          Fair enough, I’m sorry if my opinion affet you in some way, but I have never said TLJ is a bad film, I just pointed the things I dislike because imo are not right, and the things that I really liked about it too, wich are a lot, both are important to me, I just want to share my opinion of what I see, and discuss it with people who thinks different, or same as me. imo TLJ disrespects in many ways SW and at the same time it adds really great stuff to the SW saga.

          Not my intention to bring others down, your opinion is so valid and I repect it, I just want to say what I think just like you can say what you think. Btw having Star Wars is
          one of the things that makes me happy 🙂

  • December 20, 2017 at 5:53 pm
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    People felt disappointed because of their own speculations. They speculated for 2 years about what would happen in Ep.8 and who Rey and Snoke are. Then when their expectations seemed to be wrong, they blamed RJ.

    • December 20, 2017 at 6:20 pm
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      Oversimplification. Not at all true. The producers over promised. They hyped Rey’s parentage reveal and said it would be “incredibly satisfying for fans”. Yet the reveal was that she was a nobody? Ok.

      • December 20, 2017 at 6:40 pm
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        Exactly. The speculation and hype was almost encouraged by them, so they can’t really complain when film-goers complain about being let down by the hollow promises of answers to questions. That’s the slap in the face that fans object to.

      • December 20, 2017 at 6:43 pm
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        Who did you think her parents were before seeing The Last Jedi?

        • December 20, 2017 at 6:51 pm
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          No idea, but damn did JJ ad Kasdan hint the FUCK out of it being pretty exciting in TFA! Oh. You mean there was never anything in the mystery box to begin with? What an enormous surprise. Nope, did not see that coming from Abrams.

          • December 20, 2017 at 6:53 pm
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            How to make a mystery box:
            Step one: get a box.
            Step two: cut a hole in the box.
            Step three …..

          • December 20, 2017 at 6:58 pm
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            I wonder where his drunk parents were going in that ship shown in TFA? To buy some booze? To Canto Bights casino? Then they come back to be buried in Jakku? Nonsense

          • December 20, 2017 at 7:07 pm
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            Obviously they traded her for the ship and crashlanded shortly after the forceback scene where they both died because that’s what you get for drinking and flying a spaceship kids. Honestly though this didn’t bother me that much but it is just another example that they did never have an overarching story planend out which is kinda embarassing for Disney.

          • December 20, 2017 at 7:33 pm
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            Is it possible we just interpreted it wrong? I mean Maz pretty much spelled it out that her parents are gone, and she needs to look forward.

          • December 21, 2017 at 12:04 am
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            Not to mention the ship the show flying off look suspiciously like the ship Rey and Finn run towards until Tie’s blow it up.

          • December 21, 2017 at 12:54 am
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            Oh, I never noticed that before.

        • December 20, 2017 at 6:56 pm
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          I was a Han & Leia theorist, but could have lived with her being Luke’s. Some interesting backstory to it. Not built up to be this exciting reveal to be “nobody”.

          • December 20, 2017 at 7:30 pm
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            Why would her backstory be more interesting if she’s a Solo or a Skywalker?

          • December 21, 2017 at 12:08 am
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            More importantly how much time would need to be spent by Luke or Leia explaining the whole thing? Why did you giver he rup? Why doesnt she know you? Why dont you know her? Why did you give her to Unkarr Plutt? etc. Then we can move on with the story.

          • December 21, 2017 at 12:56 am
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            That’s a really good point.

          • December 21, 2017 at 2:46 am
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            If the suggestion is that making her a Skywalker of some description would have been a problem in terms of pacing and storytelling, then fine – that’s totally cool. I don’t need her to be someone special. The criticism of that though is ‘then why the hell did you spend a movie building up her lineage as some big secret?”. That just positively REEKS to me of JJ’s mystery box, that, as usual, didn’t actually have anything in it. Which again is fine for a single movie where he doesn’t have to worry about paying off that buildup, but in an ongoing saga with these characters is just aggravating for no reason.

          • December 21, 2017 at 2:50 am
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            Did they or did you/we/others. After all going back to earlier.

            Maz says “You already know the truth … Whoever you were waiting for on Jakku, they’re never coming back. But there’s someone who still can: Luke.”

            Lots of people lived in denial about this.

      • December 21, 2017 at 3:14 pm
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        Give me evidence of this? I remember articles where they downplayed things. I was at Celebration and dont recall stuff like this.

      • December 21, 2017 at 4:35 pm
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        “Rey’s parents are not in Episode VII,” Abrams said to the audience. OK so since Luke, Leia, and Han are all in EP7 we can from this tell that people didnt listen or didnt want to listen. That is from April 2016.

    • December 20, 2017 at 6:29 pm
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      There is always speculations, this doesn’t change what this movies are.

    • December 20, 2017 at 10:55 pm
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      It seems as if they ran a non stop algorithm that scoured the net for theories then made sure they used none of them.

      • December 21, 2017 at 3:51 am
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        This film was wrote and filmed 2 years ago….. Timeline doesn’t fit.

    • December 21, 2017 at 12:52 am
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      Who wrote the film

  • December 20, 2017 at 6:00 pm
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    If your site could chill out with the ads that would be great. Get rid of the ads that AUTO-PLAY WITH SOUND. Nothing makes me click out of a site faster than getting blasted in the ear with sound that you didnt initiate. I cant even read this article because the last ad keeps scrolling the page to focus on it. Copying page contents and pasting in a text editor to read as I close the page.

    • December 20, 2017 at 8:15 pm
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      We appreciate the feedback. We have removed the ad causing this problem and have contacted the ad company about it. Thanks!

      • December 20, 2017 at 11:59 pm
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        I keep getting this Hospira add that I cant find. I even get it multiple times and it is playing over itself

        • December 21, 2017 at 2:41 pm
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          Yeah, we’re having some issues with the ads. We are still working on it. Thanks!

        • December 21, 2017 at 10:47 pm
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          Can you try again? This ad was forced on the site from Disqus without us knowing. Should be gone now.

    • December 21, 2017 at 10:44 pm
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      We found what was the problem. Disqus has just launched a new feature – ads that you can’t deactivate, unless you upgrade your account. That was a pretty low move, especially without any warning. And the worst thing is that these ads don’t show to everyone. So for example I don’t have the problem you have, because for some reason I don’t see that ad. But now everything is fixed. I paid them a full year subscription so that I could deactivate their ads. So this issues shouldn’t be happening now. This was a problem that occurred just in the last 2 days.
      Can you confirm all is OK now?

  • December 20, 2017 at 6:02 pm
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    Some people go well overboard.

    My only concern is the lack of an overall concept for the trilogy. Yes its pointed out many a time that the PT and OT were developed this way, but clearly having a strategy is the way forward in the film industry (take the MCU as the perfect example). Again the plan can be adjusted, as was the case of introducing Spiderman after the surprise deal and no doubt thoughts are now turning to X-Men after phase 3 is done.

    My point is that while its great some elements of Lucas’s vision have been implemented I think I speak for a lot of fans and wished they had used his overall concept. Change and adjust, but keep the overall arc in play. Having each writer and director doing their own thing doesn’t sit well with me.

  • December 20, 2017 at 6:10 pm
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    The problem is not whether TLJ is faithful to GL’s vision or not. The problem is tjhat the movie is plainly bad and absurd. It looks almost like a parody of Star Wars. The politics of the galaxy is also wrong,. It is unlikely for example that the New Republic would simply collapse after the attack on the Hosnian system and that the First Order would simply rise to power unopposed, especially after it lost Starkiller base.

    • December 20, 2017 at 6:14 pm
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      Remember this is right after the end of TFA. How much time would the New Republic require to get back on it’s feet. Remember the New Republic downsized the military and the mass of the New Republic fleet was destroyed by Starkiller base.

      • December 20, 2017 at 6:38 pm
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        Rea]ly, where are we told about this ‘downsizing’ in TFA?

    • December 20, 2017 at 7:15 pm
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      The battle of Crait was hilarious in retrospect: The FO rolls out all this impressive machinery — giant walkers with big cannons strapped on their tops, a huge Big Gun that they dragged across the landscape — shoot down a couple of rickety Ski Speeders and then fire away at a Force hologram, as the last few remaining Resistance members sneak out the back. (And the Big Gun was neither destroyed nor fired.) lol

      Oh, and Luke admonished Rey that the Force wasn’t about levitating rocks. Yet Rey did exactly that in order to help the Resistance members out of the cave!

      And when Kylo realized he had been hoodwinked, he screamed “Nooooooooooo…!!”

      It didn’t feel like Johnson was upending expectations in this finale — it absolutely does feel like Johnson was mocking Star Wars tropes in this finale.

    • December 20, 2017 at 7:15 pm
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      The battle of Crait was hilarious in retrospect: The FO rolls out all this impressive machinery — giant walkers with big cannons strapped on their tops, a huge Big Gun that they dragged across the landscape — shoot down a couple of rickety Ski Speeders and then fire away at a Force hologram, as the last few remaining Resistance members sneak out the back. (And the Big Gun was neither destroyed nor fired.) lol

      Oh, and Luke admonished Rey that the Force wasn’t about levitating rocks. Yet Rey did exactly that in order to help the Resistance members out of the cave!

      And when Kylo realized he had been hoodwinked, he screamed “Nooooooooooo…!!”

      It didn’t feel like Johnson was upending expectations in this finale — it absolutely does feel like Johnson was mocking Star Wars tropes in this finale.

      • December 20, 2017 at 11:50 pm
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        Right?! WHY didn’t Kylo simply fire his big-ass gun? End of the resistance once and for all right there. No need for an Episode IX.

        • December 21, 2017 at 1:51 am
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          The FO’s strategy was baffling. Didn’t Kylo want to find Luke? What happened with that? Instead, they picked off remnants of the Resistance, who were very few in number already. Why all the heavy armory deployed on Crait for less than a few dozen hold-outs? It all felt like overkill.

          After I watched the movie, I wondered if this was bad writing, an oversight on Johnson’s part. But now I wonder if he was mocking it all — all these big war machines. In TLJ they’re bigger than previous generation’s — ridiculously so, and they don’t do anything, really. It seems like Johnson is saying it’s stupid how these movies and the fans fetishize these massive “toys” of war. (Which would tie directly back to the war profiting talk on Canto Bight.)

          And the way the Resistance on board the Falcon behaved, as if they were victorious, with the rousing Williams score playing — what are they happy about?? There’s hardly any of them left. If anything, they should appear somber and worrying about what the future holds, with a more appropriate music score.

          This movie is weird. It’s an anti-war Star Wars movie. When you scrutinize it, it starts to feel more like a parody of Star Wars.

          • December 21, 2017 at 3:50 am
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            Perhaps there is no need to find Luke when they can just kill off the resistance once and for all. Kill off all the hope. Luke is a relic.

  • December 20, 2017 at 6:20 pm
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    A vision is not only hints from another story, a vision is much more that that, you can make a movie based on someone else vision and this doesn’t mean you are respecting it.

    We do not need to see conceptual art to know that George Lucas would not have made a copy of New Hope even if he used the Kylo/Rey plot, even if it had parallels with new hope.

    This change nothing, what makes you think people needs to apologize wiht JJ and RJ, they disrespect Star Wars in their each particular way, the first one killing the one of the most important things of star wars, imaginación and invention, the second one messing with star wars itself, throwing away what Star Wars is, and making TLJ (in part) in to a generic action movie, using generic story telling, this is not Looper, this is Star Wars.

    Both movies have good stuff, and really good stuff that I like very much, I applaude what Rian did about the force thats a win, but that doesn’t change the fact that they disrespect Star Wars itself, and at least clearly didn use GL vision, using, only some elements from it, TFA It is indeed a really good movie, almost perfect I think, but as a homage to SW not as an actual NEW star wars movie.

    I’m curious to know how is that you think the sequel trilogy has been largely brilliant, if you think that a movie wich makes a lot of money is largely brilliant because of that, then you are totally right.

    • December 20, 2017 at 6:32 pm
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      Yep, for better or worse, Lucas didn’t like repeating himself, and I can’t help but think that, even if it was an unqualified disaster, his Episode 7 would have used those vague ideas to tell a different story, or at least a story that had something new to say.

  • December 20, 2017 at 6:28 pm
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    It’s like they took a couple of the trappings of Lucas’ ideas, but without any sense of underlying theme, grasp of archetypal and mythological storytelling, grand scale, plot logic, or a desire to show the audience anything new. That’s not really much to finger-wag people disappointed with the poor choices made in the new films with.

    • December 21, 2017 at 2:06 am
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      and how do you REALLY know that?

      • December 21, 2017 at 9:11 pm
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        “It’s like they took a couple of the trappings of Lucas’ ideas”
        It’s a response to the tone of this article which, based on a couple of superficial details that appear to have been similar between Lucas’ ideas and what we ended up, is essentially “See? SEE? They tots magoats did exactly what Lucas would have done!!!!”…all the while blithely ignoring that the major issues with TFA (no underlying idea, no sense of scale, no understanding of archetype and myth, no theme, nothing it actually wants to really be ABOUT – literall ALL of the skeleton that the movie is hung on) is exactly what Lucas is so good at getting RIGHT. The only evidence I have that Lucas would have, for better or worse, used those same superficial details to tell a story with a very different beating heart than what we’re getting is his entire filmography. I mean, you’re free to disagree, but I’m comfortable with my guess here.

  • December 20, 2017 at 6:38 pm
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    Rian was certainly getting rid of more ideas Lucas had come up with than he was embracing in TLJ. One big idea of Lucas was heritage and bloodlines, a concept which Rian has completely abandoned in TLJ. “It’s about family” Carrie Fisher says in one of the promotional behind the scenes trailers for TLJ. Which, quite frankly might sound nice in the trailer and all but “family” has never been less important in SW than after TLJ.

    One thing I am also fearful of after seein TLJ is that random forcepowers will be used as cheap plotdevices to get our heroes out of sticky situations a lot more frequently. Similar to how the whole “Leia flies through space scene” went down. It wasn’t unbelievable that Leia used the force but the timing and efficiency with which she used it felt odd. When I saw this scene I pictured Han Solo turn over to Finn on Starkiller base. “That’s not how the force works!”

    Given that we see forcepowers pop up everywhere without any training or special heritage tied to them I can already see a bunch of characters in future movies who just happen to discover their forcepowers when a certain situation makes it necessary for them.

    “- I didn’t know you could do forcelightning to shut down this army of killerdroids?
    – Well me neither, hahahahaha!”

    Yeah, I really hope they establish some sort of rules again. Doesn’t have to be all black and white, all sith and jedi. But make it so that at least you need long training and/or a mentor and most importantly a strong willpower to fully unlock the force inside of you, something that most people will never do their whole life.

    • December 20, 2017 at 6:45 pm
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      How can you say Lucas made Force powers about bloodlines. I seem to remember a series of Star Wars films totally written by and directed by Lucas where none of the force users inherited from a parent. Maybe I am wrong and maybe those movies dont exist. Thing is Lucas has been all over the map with force users.

      • December 20, 2017 at 6:47 pm
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        Qui Gon – “Who was his father?”
        Yoda “The Force runs strong in your family, pass on what you have learned”
        The Emperor “The son of Skywalker must not become a Jedi”.
        I mean…

        • December 20, 2017 at 6:52 pm
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          AGREE. And the “force projecting” was one thing I could have lived without. It served NO purpose. If Luke was going to die, why not have him there in person? It was a silly ploy.
          Kathleen Kennedy said the trilogies were about the “Skywalker family”. They teased Rey’s parentage, and showed her to be stronger in the force without ANY training than any other Jedi. It was normal to assume the story would continue to be about the Skywalker lineage, and not a “nobody”.

          • December 20, 2017 at 6:53 pm
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            And another thing…. If they wanted to show Leia using the force, why couldn’t she have used it against Poe rather than stunning him with a blaster? That would have been better than Mary Poppins Leia.

          • December 20, 2017 at 7:04 pm
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            They could have made the scene in space where Poe wants to rescue her and open the cockpit of his X-wing and get out there even if he has no spacesuit and Leia forcefully keeps his cockpit shut so that he doesn’t risk his own life. She looks at him in a “it’s okay Poe, my time is over” look telling Poe and the audience that we should let go of her because this is what Princerss Leia would have wanted.

          • December 20, 2017 at 11:57 pm
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            EP9 was meant to be Leia’s movie. Unfortunately she passed away after all the filming was complete. So how would you have done this and still planned for EP9 to be hers. I for one love the scene and have seen enough movies that involve space where they have people survive for a short period of time outside in space. So why cant Star Wars do it. A friggin space fantasy.

          • December 21, 2017 at 1:31 am
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            Nah. Remember how bland was when Saw just stood there in a “it’s okay Jyn, my time is over”

            The scene in space is good. Its just a couple of shots that are seriously badly conceived and ruin everything.

        • December 20, 2017 at 6:54 pm
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          Not saying no one with force could pass it on. Saying that it isnt a requirement. Saying Lucas was pretty clear that it wasnt just Bloodlines that mattered.

      • December 20, 2017 at 6:47 pm
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        Every single descendant of Anakin is a forceuser. There are what, about 10,000 Jedi in the Galaxy? Corsucant has 200 Billion inhabitants alone, we can only imagine how many the galaxy has. This means the chances of having the forcepowers of a Jedi is incredibly tiny. What a coincidence that Anakin and all his descendants have force powers. Not heredetary at all.

        • December 20, 2017 at 6:54 pm
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          The saga is about Skylwakers, just sayin, there is no secret, even if there is an stronger force user somewhere doesn’t matters because the saga is about the skywalkers bloodline.

          • December 20, 2017 at 7:01 pm
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            Look every movie made it clear that your parents are an important factor to have the force. Vader says if Luke doesn’t want to join him then he will simply move on to his sister. He automatically assumed she has the force too because she is his child and he was correct. We even leared that a forceuser passes on his genes even if one part of the parents isn’t a forceuser (Padme, Han). I mean really if the force was as common in the Galaxy as it is in the Skywalker family Corsucant would look like freaking Hogwarts. Noone objectively looking at all the movies under George’s direction/production can deny that heritage of forcepowers isn’t implied numerous times.

          • December 21, 2017 at 3:48 am
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            Well this is only one of the instance but there’s so many jedis in the galaxy. Can you definitely say all of them are hereditary at all?

          • December 21, 2017 at 4:48 am
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            I never said that but heritage is definitely a factor and an important one too. I think the galxy would be full with forceusers if Jedi were allowed to have children. I mean Anakin is the only Jedi who has children and grandchildren and every single one of them is forcesensitive. If other Jedi were allowed to procreate there would potentially be a lot more forceusers arround. The way it is the jedi can only recruit the few force sensitive children that pop up every now and then. Let’s take Coruscant as an example, a melting pot with the highest diversity of sentient species and the highest concentration of Jedis in the galaxy. There are 10.000 Jedi on Corsucant that has ~200.000.000.000 inhabitans. That’s about one Jedi per 20 Million inhabitants poppin up randomly while Anaking had 3 descendants, all of whom were force sensitive.

          • December 21, 2017 at 4:48 am
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            I never said that but heritage is definitely a factor and an important one too. I think the galxy would be full with forceusers if Jedi were allowed to have children. I mean Anakin is the only Jedi who has children and grandchildren and every single one of them is forcesensitive. If other Jedi were allowed to procreate there would potentially be a lot more forceusers arround. The way it is the jedi can only recruit the few force sensitive children that pop up every now and then. Let’s take Coruscant as an example, a melting pot with the highest diversity of sentient species and the highest concentration of Jedis in the galaxy. There are 10.000 Jedi on Corsucant that has ~200.000.000.000 inhabitans. That’s about one Jedi per 20 Million inhabitants poppin up randomly while Anaking had 3 descendants, all of whom were force sensitive.

    • December 20, 2017 at 6:47 pm
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      Some kind of limit to the Force is absolutely necessary from a storytelling standpoint. If the Force lets you do basically anything, it removes any sense of risk, growth, or stakes from a story.

      • December 20, 2017 at 10:48 pm
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        Yes, this is how GL described the role of the Jedi in so far as he couldn’t make them invincible superheroes, they needed to be flawed in order to drive the narrative.

        • December 21, 2017 at 2:41 am
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          I mean, take the first 6 movies – the Force let’s you do some limited telekinesis, vaguely see the future, communicate remotely with other Force users in close proximity to you, move and react faster than humanly possible, create short-range lightning, and influence the minds of SOME people. None of those are the kind of ‘well, why didn’t you just do that to win the whole war?’ kind of things like ‘freezing blasters mid-air’, or ‘petrificus totalus’ – let alone whatever it sounds like may be going on in TLJ (still haven’t seen it). It’s a tricky line to walk – the current sequel thinking is that you have to make everything bigger, better, more, but, among other problems with it, at a certain point that paints you into a corner in terms of the storytelling.

  • December 20, 2017 at 7:27 pm
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    “could of been”

    SWNN news articles are written by 12 year olds?

    • December 20, 2017 at 8:29 pm
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      My thoughts exactly

    • December 21, 2017 at 1:52 am
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      Looking forward to seeing your most read Star Wars news site on the internet. Coming soon, right? Maybe you’ll get invited to the premiere of IX based on your successs with it. Like SWNN did.

      Probably not.

    • December 21, 2017 at 3:45 am
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      Now now there is no need to become a 12 year old to attack another…. It’s unbecoming.

  • December 20, 2017 at 8:58 pm
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    I like TLJ and there is no need in my opinion for an agressive attack or defense of the movie. Nevertheless I am interested in George Lucas’ original treatment. Not least because he said that Disney wanted to do something retro.

    Whatever you think of the prequel trilogy, they have something uniquely quirky in terms of the designs and imagery selected. Pod racer, Darth Maul, the Kaminoans, and Grevious for example are really unique. This is a little what is missing the TFA and TLJ. Crait and the Praetorian guards are a step in the right direction, but the rest of the Disney Star Wars is a bit too derived from the Original Trilogy.

  • December 20, 2017 at 9:13 pm
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    Actually, your report does not safely debunk anything. If anything, it show that George was going to continue the story of the Skywalker family, particularly Luke’s story, instead of being used a a tease for Episode VII and then poorly executed in VIII. George has always said this saga is about the Skywalker family, and that is no longer the case here. Luke would have been featured in VII instead of being a carrot dangled at the very end of the movie. George would have told us the story of Luke and the aftermath of his father’s death and his continued character’s psychology and development.

  • December 20, 2017 at 9:13 pm
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    Actually, your report does not safely debunk anything. If anything, it show that George was going to continue the story of the Skywalker family, particularly Luke’s story, instead of being used a a tease for Episode VII and then poorly executed in VIII. George has always said this saga is about the Skywalker family, and that is no longer the case here. Luke would have been featured in VII instead of being a carrot dangled at the very end of the movie. George would have told us the story of Luke and the aftermath of his father’s death and his continued character’s psychology and development.

    • December 20, 2017 at 9:42 pm
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      Go have a good cry.

    • December 20, 2017 at 9:58 pm
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      Fucking sucks. Oh well.

    • December 20, 2017 at 11:41 pm
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      The franchise is now mismanaged by people who don’t understand it. This is the result.

      • December 21, 2017 at 3:14 am
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        Said the same people who thought Lucas screwed up the prequels. You’re all a bunch of hypocrites.

        • December 21, 2017 at 3:18 am
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          I never said that Lucas screwed up the prequels. So you’re parroting a response that just doesn’t apply here.

          I don’t know how that would constitute hypocrisy anyway. Are you sure you understand the definition of the word hypocrite?

  • December 20, 2017 at 10:17 pm
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    Geez, there is a never-ending campaign to try to get people to like this movie. I’ve personally only talked with TWO PEOPLE that have liked it. Well, THREE if you count, “wasn’t the worst Star Wars ever” as an endorsement. Really starting to make me wonder about the validity of any of these stories.

  • December 20, 2017 at 10:17 pm
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    Geez, there is a never-ending campaign to try to get people to like this movie. I’ve personally only talked with TWO PEOPLE that have liked it. Well, THREE if you count, “wasn’t the worst Star Wars ever” as an endorsement. Really starting to make me wonder about the validity of any of these stories.

    • December 21, 2017 at 1:42 am
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      I’ve seen the movie with 15 different people. All of them loved it.

      See how that works? Weird huh.

      • December 21, 2017 at 4:15 am
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        I’ve seen the movie with 12 different people, all of them did not love it. See how that works? Weird huh… <- See how you didn't like that sarcasm? Let's all admit that a significant number of people liked the movie and a significant number of people did not like it.

        • December 21, 2017 at 8:07 am
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          Oh wow. You missed my point entirely, then made it yourself, and took credit. Good job. Did you like that sarcasm? I know your Mom did.

        • December 21, 2017 at 8:07 am
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          Oh wow. You missed my point entirely, then made it yourself, and took credit. Good job. Did you like that sarcasm? I know your Mom did.

          • December 21, 2017 at 10:02 am
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            Good.. Gooood! I can feel the hate flowing through you…

          • December 21, 2017 at 2:41 pm
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            Oooooooooo. Maxi big da Force. Well that smell stink of it.

          • December 21, 2017 at 6:11 pm
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            Join me, Jar Jar, and together we can rule the galaxy!

      • December 21, 2017 at 7:44 am
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        So it’s your mission to discredit the idea that a decent number of people hate the film is what your saying?

        • December 21, 2017 at 7:59 am
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          No. That’s not my point at all. Keep thinking real hard, and see if you can figure it out yet. I believe in you.

          • December 21, 2017 at 8:34 am
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            Nah. I got better things to do then listen to your condescending responses.

          • December 21, 2017 at 2:50 pm
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            Tail between your legs and running. Go on home boy, find yourself another bone to chew.

        • December 22, 2017 at 1:46 am
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          I didn’t Timmeh. Don’t worry.

    • December 21, 2017 at 3:13 am
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      Yeah, because your confirmation bias is such an airtight metric for determining objective truth. You see what you want to see.

    • December 21, 2017 at 3:44 am
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      You mean like the never-ending campaign to discredit the movie and get people to boycott star wars? Yea…… well. There’s always 2 sides to the story.

    • December 21, 2017 at 3:44 am
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      You mean like the never-ending campaign to discredit the movie and get people to boycott star wars? Yea…… well. There’s always 2 sides to the story.

    • December 21, 2017 at 4:13 am
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      The hurt feelings of those who liked the movie when confronted with those who didn’t like, or even hated, the movie has been fascinating.

      • December 21, 2017 at 4:21 am
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        Yes, thats kinda what I’m saying. It is fascinating to watch. I don’t remember people being all offended that people hated Phantom Menace. Nobody was trying to convince everyone that ‘yippee!’ and stepping in poo was great storytelling. Why is it so offensive for these guys to know that lots of us really disliked Last Jedi?

        I’m bowing out now. I’ve already tried to stop posting about this. Arguing about this crap on social media is pointless. We can’t ‘discuss’ anything on social media – its always just ‘I’m right / you’re wrong’. *sigh*

      • December 21, 2017 at 4:21 am
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        Yes, thats kinda what I’m saying. It is fascinating to watch. I don’t remember people being all offended that people hated Phantom Menace. Nobody was trying to convince everyone that ‘yippee!’ and stepping in poo was great storytelling. Why is it so offensive for these guys to know that lots of us really disliked Last Jedi?

        I’m bowing out now. I’ve already tried to stop posting about this. Arguing about this crap on social media is pointless. We can’t ‘discuss’ anything on social media – its always just ‘I’m right / you’re wrong’. *sigh*

        • December 21, 2017 at 4:35 am
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          I’m not offended. Just baffled. I’m glad that I loved the movie and don’t have to be miserable because the movie I saw didn’t match the one I already constructed in my mind. There are good reasons to not like certain aspects of the film, but hating the entire movie makes no sense to me and the reasons for hating it are so freaking stupid.

          • December 21, 2017 at 7:42 am
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            People are allowed to hate whatever they want even if it doesn’t make sense to you. I love Pirates of the Caribbean 4 a movie plenty of people hate and I don’t sit there on my high horse act baffled like how dare people more than just dislike this movie

      • January 5, 2018 at 12:17 pm
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        It is absolutely a social phenomena and worth an academic study on the correlation between Star Wars, fan disappointment, delusional acceptance, and social media.

      • January 5, 2018 at 12:17 pm
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        It is absolutely a social phenomena and worth an academic study on the correlation between Star Wars, fan disappointment, delusional acceptance, and social media.

    • December 21, 2017 at 11:37 pm
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      Disney, Lucas Film, and company have taken the tact of let’s shame people into jumping in the dumpster fire because it was smartly made, completely missing why people are unhappy. You want an anti-hero character, fine. You want to give Luke a moment of anti-hero, cool. But did you need to make his entire being be about one moment of hero where he was never really in danger, and denigrate all his acts of heroism to that of failed missions.

      • December 22, 2017 at 10:27 am
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        Let’s be very honest here. Reading their comments and statements, Disney and Lucasfilm aren’t really shaming anybody. Sony did that with aplomb for the abortive ‘Ghostbusters’ reboot and, to some degree, Warner Bros did it for ‘Batman v Superman’. That isn’t what’s happening in this case.

        Moreover, disagreeing with some story choices in a financially successful film genuinely liked by critics, most average film audiences and a good chunk of ‘Star Wars’ fans does not a ‘dumpster fire’ make.

    • January 5, 2018 at 12:03 pm
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      Out of my friends and family I am the only one that even half way liked it. So yes I see your point. I don’t see all these everyday people they say are loving it.

  • December 20, 2017 at 10:32 pm
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    Ok so they took some influences and then executed them horribly, even if they took some ideas its not george vision thats why he walked away…theres no “forgive us rian and jar jar abrahms”

    • December 21, 2017 at 3:11 am
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      Let’s be fair, Lucas is more than capable of taking his own ideas and executing them poorly. 😛

      • December 21, 2017 at 7:37 am
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        Really?? I get you didn’t like the prequels but Lucas also created Star Wars and pretty much everyone loves the original trilogy but yea continue to crap on guy who brought you at the very least 3 films you enjoyed. I’d like to see you try and even make a decent Star Wars film.

      • December 21, 2017 at 7:37 am
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        Really?? I get you didn’t like the prequels but Lucas also created Star Wars and pretty much everyone loves the original trilogy but yea continue to crap on guy who brought you at the very least 3 films you enjoyed. I’d like to see you try and even make a decent Star Wars film.

        • December 21, 2017 at 3:58 pm
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          At least the prequels worked in script form, fulfilled the story-line(s) getting us from there to here and maintained some cohesion of the Star Wars universe…. there’s that. What we’re seeing in this new Sequel Trilogy is just “out there” (and the plot holes are literally written into every scene change)

  • December 20, 2017 at 11:40 pm
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    The really sad thing about the concept art for the Sequel Trilogy, particularly TFA, is that all of the concept art looks so much more interesting that what actually appears in the films.

    • December 21, 2017 at 9:58 am
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      As a big fan of making-of and art-of books, I would say that’s true of most concept art. ‘Star Wars’, at least, has lately had a bit of advantage in recycling art through its different media, such as ‘Rebels’ re-purposing Ralph McQuarrie and even TFA’s unused art.

      • December 21, 2017 at 7:34 pm
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        I was a big fan of those too, but I’d have to respectfully disagree. It’s possible that I’m clouded with nostalgia here, but I genuinely think that with respect to OT and even PT, the best designs made it to the screen.

        With regards to using the rejected Ralph McQuarrie concepts, being so familiar with them through the books you mention, they have kind of a stale feel to me, and thus fail to provide anything genuinely new or groundbreaking.

        • December 21, 2017 at 7:41 pm
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          Fair enough. I’m not really a McQuarrie fan myself, but I find the retooling of his designs itself fascinating.

          Unfortunately I never did manage to get my hands on PT art books, so I’ll have to take you at your word there.

          • December 21, 2017 at 8:01 pm
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            The PT has many faults, but art design is not one of them.

  • December 21, 2017 at 1:00 am
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    Nearly all plotpoints from the force awakens disregarded you deserved to know who smoke realy was and abt rey she was told she was a nobody yoda said lies deceit the dark side are they the way Luke gave up utter stupid and they had abt 50 survivors at the end the wars over they’ve lost then you have the 3 children telling how Luke faced the 1st order when it had only just happened rj tried to be 2 clever and now it’s blew up in his face

    • December 21, 2017 at 1:41 am
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      You sound entitled. Very entitled.

      • December 21, 2017 at 4:11 am
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        I think he might be a pre-teen so don’t judge to harshly.

        • December 21, 2017 at 8:10 am
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          All the more reason to verbally slap them upside the head and do what their parents aren’t doing. Teach them not to be an idiot.

          • December 21, 2017 at 11:22 pm
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            Again, your AVI is Hannity! Are you a fan. Because that would be ignorant.

          • December 22, 2017 at 1:46 am
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            Oh Timmeh.

        • December 21, 2017 at 12:15 pm
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          If the comments aimed at me I’m 43 years old and a life time fan

      • December 21, 2017 at 11:21 pm
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        Because you don’t agree with him he’s entitled. I guess he’s entitled to his opinion.

        • December 22, 2017 at 1:46 am
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          If you’re defending that shit rant you’re more pathetic that I gave you credit for, Timmeh.

  • December 21, 2017 at 1:24 am
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    Boy, the fandom is just incredible…

    • December 21, 2017 at 4:10 am
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      People didn’t like the movie = fandom is just incredible.

      • December 21, 2017 at 9:19 am
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        That’s not my main concern. As I said early on, I can perfectly understand that a good portion of viewers might not like the film, as I was too very torn by it after seeing it. What makes me state that the fandom is incredible is that, their main complaints are basically the best parts of the film. I mean, I hear very little complaints about the huge flaws, namely, Canto Bight, the plot hole caused by DJ knowing the Resistance’s plans, and most of the whole story arc about the resistance. The main complaints are basically that Luke is now a more developed character. The fandom is angry because Luke has been dealt with as a human being and not a demigod (which, eventually is proven kinda wrong by the ending).

        • December 21, 2017 at 2:41 pm
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          There is no plot hole about DJ knowing the Resistance’s plans: Poe tells him (and Fin and Rose)

          • December 22, 2017 at 12:00 am
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            You actually may be right… I must have not noticed that

          • December 22, 2017 at 11:09 am
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            that’s okay, there’s a lot going on in this movie – and I also noticed just by viewing a second time. =)

        • December 21, 2017 at 10:07 pm
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          Uh DJ was clearly there when Poe was on the comm telling Finn and Rose about Haldo’s plan. The camera even focuses on his face when Poe says it…so idk what you’re talking about there.

          • December 22, 2017 at 12:00 am
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            I guess the rush of the scene didn’t made me notice that.

          • December 22, 2017 at 6:09 am
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            Haha it’s cool I didn’t notice it until my 3rd viewing. A lot is going on in the film and it’s a bit much to take in every little detail at once.

          • December 22, 2017 at 8:19 am
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            In my defence, I managed so far to see it only once, on the release date.

      • December 21, 2017 at 9:45 am
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        You have to admit, though, more than six online petitions within a matter of days asking Disney to relinquish the Star Wars licence, for Rian Johnson to apologise for working on ‘The Last Jedi’ and to have it struck from the canon (more than once), getting a good number of votes is a bit incredible.

        • December 21, 2017 at 11:17 pm
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          I don’t find it incredible. I find it plausible. Failure Luke can’t be fixed otherwise.

          • December 22, 2017 at 7:10 am
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            I detest having to say this, but it’s that kind of attitude that makes some fans look like a bunch of entitled, petulant man-children screaming, “I don’t like it so it shouldn’t count!”

  • December 21, 2017 at 9:00 am
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    “In Episode VII, Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi, exiled himself to a faraway planet, disillusioned with the Jedi path before Kira would convince him to open his mind and save his friends.”

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    This. Is. Fantastic. So much for Rian Johnson “ruining” Lucas’ plan for Luke’s character.

    • December 21, 2017 at 1:34 pm
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      Oh boy, talk about stretching it. First of all, the source to this claim just leads to a video of Hamill talking about other stuff.

      Besides, nobody is complaining about Luke being disatisfied with the Jedi – this had already been setup in the trailers. I was excited for where they were going with Luke, but then Rian turned him into a murderer.

      • December 21, 2017 at 8:22 pm
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        Did he murder anyone? Didn’t think so.

        • December 21, 2017 at 11:15 pm
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          If Luke’s directly led Kylo to the dark side, then one could make that claim. But I doubt you really missed his point.

          • December 22, 2017 at 12:03 am
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            The point was that Luke was being called a murderer, and that is false. So yeah.

  • December 21, 2017 at 12:18 pm
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    I liked Last Jedi. I was very much on the fence about Force Awakens. But I recognise the former has some problems and why some might prefer the latter. So I’ve got time for anyone who doesn’t like Last Jedi and can reasonably articulate why. It’s when people get hysterical over it and take it super seriously, like the recent petition to de-canonise the picture. That sort of absurd behaviour is difficult to tolerate or be associated with in any way. Those are the people you really do wish would get a life.

  • December 21, 2017 at 7:26 pm
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    Going to share 2 quotes. From the TFA and one from JJ Abrams. These are elsewhere in the comments, but thought they should be put together and shared a new.

    Maz says “You already know the truth … Whoever you were waiting for on Jakku, they’re never coming back. But there’s someone who still can: Luke.”

    “Rey’s parents are not in Episode VII,” Abrams said to the audience. April 2016. So not Luke, not Leia, not Han..Not anyone who was in EP7

    So anyone who says that Rey parentage disclosure is BS wasnt paying attention.

  • December 21, 2017 at 11:13 pm
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    Sounds like Lucas taking one for the team, since suddenly after massive critismism, they’ve gone from they are ignoring Lucas vision to they are now suddenly heavily borrowing from it. Anyways, the new story arch sucks not because of lack of Lucas, because it borrows so much from what he already did. Super weapons, disappearing Jedi, Rebels face down great odds. After three decades of Star Wars the story arch has landed right smack dab where it started. The Galaxy needs hope again in order to take out an army of storm troopers. It feels like Han, Leia, and Luke really all just failed and are hoping the new gen learns from them. Wow! That’s not crapping all over those heroes at all.

  • December 22, 2017 at 1:50 am
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    Just to throw my penny in (again)…. my problem wasn’t solely what Rey’s lineage turned out to be – tho I had been hoping for Leia to have hidden her daughter (perhaps with a Force ‘memory block’) akin to how she and her brother had been hidden for safety – but more with the blatant tease and expectations set up by TFA. If Rey was to have been a “nobody” from the outset, then tell us in TFA, we’d have accepted it there and then, and recognised her earn her rewards based on her own merit, and we’d have moved forward from TFA following this new hero ; all the while wondering what fate would befall the last of the Skywalker line, Ben Solo.
    Personally I want the ‘Episode Saga’ to be about the Skywalker Family, and any new heroes can either be secondary to that or within their own stand-alone movies [eg, ‘Rey of Hope : A Star Wars Story’] ; so I now fear that LFL are deliberately closing down the Family Saga to promote the new heroes completely unrelated. Perhaps the partial loss of the numerical moniker should be a sign that this might be their direction. I have always felt that the great thing about SW is that it’s a like a TV soap opera with familial generations faced with same or similar problems and resolving them in same or different ways ; while, for example, Star Trek (what little I know), is a series of one-off stand-alone adventures. Surely SW should never be that and can never be allowed to be that ?

    • December 30, 2017 at 9:37 pm
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      But they did tell us in TFA. Also, her identity was important for her character, and as the protagonist the audience should be along for the ride. So knowing what she doesn’t wouldn’t be as fun.

    • January 5, 2018 at 3:58 am
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      How many generations of this family do you need to see go through the same shit over and over again?

      • January 6, 2018 at 3:03 am
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        Because, for me, the attraction of SW is specifically following how different generations of the same family ‘f*ck up’ and how they or their children deal with that. It has very much a Greek Mythology concept with ideas of destiny and fate ; and how the parent makes one choice with a set of consequences, while the child makes another or similar choice but has vastly different results, and in turn the grandchild (perhaps idolising the grandparent) makes another choice. In my ignorance, I’d say Star Trek , for example, is a series of one-off adventures, whereas SW has one family arc with repercussions. If I want to follow one-off (or two-hander) adventures, then I’d turn to the SW stand-alone movies. So, for example, Rey the Nobody would have made an excellent stand-alone movie, but shouldn’t have top billing in a Skywalker family saga 🙂

        ….. ask yourself what choices your own father made, and in turn the reaction of the father to the circumstances that your grandfather found himself in ; and how, consciously or unconsciously, your own actions today are mirroring your predecessors.

    • January 7, 2018 at 11:44 am
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      I think they were trying to tell us that when Maz says: the belonging you seek is not behind you but ahead. In other words, her past (aka her parents) does not matter. That’s the vibe I remember getting immediately after watching TFA in the theater. It does not do good to stay stuck in the past and let it hold you back. So with that in mind, I always expected her parents to be nobodies. I actually hoped it would come true. I initially wanted her parents to be Kenobi actually but, from a writer’s perspective, it would serve her character better if she was an unimportant person who made herself a “hero” of her own efforts. To have important parents would force Rey to carry the weight of her parents’ legacy and names on her shoulders. She’d become known as ___’s child.

      An example would be Loki from the MCU. He absolutely loathes it every time someone refers to him as “Thor’s brother”. He wants to be recognized as himself. Rey, with her parents’ names, would then become known as so-and-so’s child. Ah, so you’re the daughter of __ & __. You know your parents blah blah blah, and blah. Ah, they were great people. Hope you can live up to their legacy. This is also why Anakin’s lightsaber had to break. It was never hers to begin with, and it was never hers to keep. Everyone always saw it as “Rey using Anakin’s lightsaber”. A lightsaber is considered an extension of the soul and/or body. A representation of the user. She must now develop a saber of her own (I assume the Jedi texts will guide her). Because Rey’s story is really about her developing her own identity through her own efforts. Like the SW games always say, “Choose your path” or “Forge your own destiny”. The usual!

      Phew, sorry for the wordy comment!

  • December 23, 2017 at 6:30 am
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    According to one of my friends, concept art isn’t really enough to show that Lucas is involved with TFA and TLJ. He has to be physically involved like being an advisor in order for both of them to have Lucas’ touch, which is why he still hates both of those films but enjoys Rogue One.

    • January 7, 2018 at 10:53 am
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      I believe since 2014 Lucas has been working as a creative consultant with the directors for this trilogy

  • February 15, 2018 at 11:54 pm
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    After 40 years investing into Star Wars, people are constantly defending the last jedi. If it was good there would be no need. Simply it was a terrible story badly executed, no heart or sole with the story having no basis or reason making any sense.
    If Lucas for example had Luke in exile with Kira coming to find him I’m certain there would have been a better explanation for it. Like Luke had left the temple only to return finding that Ben had slaughtered the padawans.after everything Luke had achieved he would not have raised his saber to kill his nephew.
    This is only one of a million things wrong with the last jedi. Take Star Wars out of the equation and imagine it was a whole new space movie, would anyone have bothered with it along with kennedys political agenda, NO
    It’s obviously a way to exploit Star wars to get biased opinion across!
    I am so angry and crushed by what she has done!
    So no more excuses, admit it’s simply bad

  • February 15, 2018 at 11:57 pm
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    Rotten tomatoes 48%

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