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[SPOILERS] Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Thread #3) - That's Not How the Force Works

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Can you imagine what the movie would've looked like if every suggested change/elaboration/addition mentioned in these threads was implemented? It would be a 9 hour epic of people over-explaining things to each other.
That sounds like a hyperbolic strawman. Just a tad.

Every time I see someone suggest that the film needed more exposition, a part of me dies a little.

Given the large number of people who were confused about the nature of the relationship between the New Republic, the Resistance, the Rebels, the Empire, and the First Order, I don't think it's a stretch to say that the film could have done better in that regard.
 
I think this also ties into the film needing to be more explicit and clear about, (for the lack of a better term) "power levels". It shows Kylo Ren being a total monstrous badass in the opening shot. And while over the course of the movie, the movie drops hints that Kylo isn't actually as "with it" as initially thought, it was still jarring to a lot of people that he "somehow" gets owned by 2 noobs in the end fight. Sure, you can always say that these people weren't paying attention, but when there are that many audience members who didn't understand, I mean, that's saying something about how accessible the writing was at conveying the proper information to the general audience.

After the OT beat us senselessly over the head with the idea that success with the Force is a matter of faith and not skill basically every time Luke ran into trouble using it -

BEN
I suggest you try it again, Luke.

This time, let go your conscious
self and act on instinct.


LUKE
(laughing)
With the blast shield down, I can't
even see. How am I supposed to fight?

BEN
Your eyes can deceive you. Don't
trust them.


BEN
Stretch out with your feelings.

BEN
You see, you can do it.

BEN'S VOICE
Use the Force, Luke.

Let go, Luke.

Luke, trust me.

LUKE
Oh, no. We'll never get it out
now.

YODA
So certain are you. Always with
you it cannot be done.
Hear you
nothing that I say?

LUKE
Master, moving stones around is
one thing. This is totally
different.


YODA
No! No different! Only different
in your mind.
You must unlearn
what you have learned.

LUKE
(focusing, quietly)
All right, I'll give it a try.

YODA
No! Try not. Do. Or do not.
There is no try.


LUKE
(panting heavily)
I can't. It's too big.

YODA
Size matters not. Look at me.
Judge me by my size, do you?
Hm? Mmmm.

And well you should not. For my
ally in the Force. And a powerful
ally it is.
Life creates it, makes
it grow. Its energy surrounds us
and binds us. Luminous beings
are we...
(Yoda pinches
Luke's shoulder)
... not this crude matter.
(a sweeping gesture)
You must feel the Force around you.
(gesturing)
Here, between you... me... the
tree... the rock... everywhere!
Yes, even between this land and
that ship!

LUKE
(discouraged)
You want the impossible.

(Yoda moves the ship)

LUKE
I don't... I don't believe it.

YODA
That is why you fail.

- I think that anyone who can't comprehend why Rey would beat Kylo in the end are simply incapable of understanding Star Wars.

Given the large number of people who were confused about the nature of the relationship between the New Republic, the Resistance, the Rebels, the Empire, and the First Order, I don't think it's a stretch to say that the film could have done better in that regard.

I think there's definitely a reason why people are more confused with this film, especially since the relationship between the Republic and the two actual factions is pretty obscure, but honestly I think if you treat the New Republic/New Senate the way people did the Old Republic/Imperial Senate in the original film, you come away with a pretty good sense of the status quo just based on General Hux's speech.
 

Vagabundo

Member

Sorry I dont see any of that.

She mentions it, alluding to the abandonment issues, but I really don't see if affecting anything she does. It certainly doesn't affect her force savant power ups. She turns down the job offer from Han to go back, which has zero affect on her character as plot takes over. Maybe she was a little nervous when Finn was going to leave? That's all I can think off.

Not really a deep character effecting flaw. They could expand on that greatly in the next two movies, but there is nothing much in this one.
 
Nah, I think that would have fit just fine. After hearing more people's opinions about this movie, I'm beginning to feel that it should have been more overtly shown that Kylo Ren was fucking with Finn and Rey.

I think this also ties into the film needing to be more explicit and clear about, (for the lack of a better term) "power levels". It shows Kylo Ren being a total monstrous badass in the opening shot. And while over the course of the movie, the movie drops hints that Kylo isn't actually as "with it" as initially thought, it was still jarring to a lot of people that he "somehow" gets owned by 2 noobs in the end fight. Sure, you can always say that these people weren't paying attention, but when there are that many audience members who didn't understand, I mean, that's saying something about how accessible the writing was at conveying the proper information to the general audience.
But I think that's the main problem. People keep throwing around the word training like it's some measurable way to tell how well someone will do in a duel. The duels (in the Original Trilogy, anyway) were more about the conversation of ideologies than actual swordsmanship. Yes, of course you need to explain enough as to why someone can hold their own, but I think they did that fine, in both that Rey has been self-sufficient her whole life and that Ren is both injured physically and emotionally.

Rey is a "noob" if she were to go take a Pop Quiz on Jedi Training, but she's doing quite well in the "trusting the force" and "not letting your emotions make you a fucking maniac" courses. Also, Snoke says bring Rey to me. What more do you need to know to show that he's not going for the kill shot?
 
The prequels made people think that Jedis had to be trained from when they were babies at a school doing dumb stuff like this. Glad they just ignored that bullshit.

Training.jpg

I took that to mean that they had to start indoctrinating the kids into the Jedi mindset from an early age. If you start introducing magic mind powers to someone Anakin's age and they aren't 100% on board with your lifestyle things turn out bad
 

Snake

Member
After the OT beat us senselessly over the head with the idea that success with the Force is a matter of faith and not skill basically every time Luke ran into trouble using it -

*quotes*

- I think that anyone who can't comprehend why Rey would beat Kylo in the end are simply incapable of understanding Star Wars.

That last Luke-Yoda exchange really is a perfect encapsulation of how misguided this debate has become. It's a shame that, for over a decade, midichlorian/power-level nonsense has infected the way a lot of people view the Star Wars universe. Thankfully this is one of the issues that JJ and company got absolutely right.
 
I took that to mean that they had to start indoctrinating the kids into the Jedi mindset from an early age. If you start introducing magic mind powers to someone Anakin's age and they aren't 100% on board with your lifestyle things turn out bad

One more thing that would have worked a lot better about TPM if they had just cast Anakin a few years older.
 
She mentions it, alluding to the abandonment issues, but I really don't see if affecting anything she does. It certainly doesn't affect her force savant power ups.

As soon as shit gets realer than simply going with Finn to drop off BB-8 and then going home, she panics and runs away, literally and directly rejecting the idea of taking up the Force for the sake of good and deciding that this fight is too hard and she doesn't want any part of it.

She seems to accept that she won't find what she's looking for on Jakku, but then she isn't ready to accept what's coming to her instead, either - not until things come 'round to her protecting BB-8's secrets again and she finds a real and urgent need to tap into the Force to defend herself against Kylo.

But if she hadn't called attention to herself by going apeshit on Stormtroopers back at Maz's castle, maybe Kylo would never have found her or the droid and she'd never have needed to use the Force and she could have remained in her little protective bubble forever, who knows.

Like I said before, I believe that is the fault of the prequels.

That last Luke-Yoda exchange really is a perfect encapsulation of how misguided this debate has become. It's a shame that, for over a decade, midichlorian/power-level nonsense has infected the way a lot of people view the Star Wars universe. Thankfully this is one of the issues that JJ and company got absolutely right.

People typically don't read the prequels correctly, either.

The midichlorian thing is just an in-universe way of showing us that the institutionalized Jedi had embraced certain scientific observations in their understanding of the Force. In truth, the fact that some beings have more Force-sensitive cells in their bodies should have been an easy conclusion once we figured out that "the Force is strong in _____ families."

Obviously none of that means jack shit when it comes to understanding what it takes to be triumphant in the struggle between good and evil, because the prized Jedi Chosen One turned to the dark side and his son didn't defeat him through mastery of the Force but through sacrificial love.

But people seem to insist that it's a defining property of how the Force works in the prequels, despite Obi-Wan handily kicking Anakin's ass even though he's at a "lower power level," despite Yoda retreating to a less orthodox hermit-like lifestyle and teaching technique y the OT, etc.
 
It makes sense within the logic of the film.

Finn is trying to get as far away from Jakku as possible; Rey is trying to get back there as soon as possible. Finn (rightly) thinks that there's someone she thinks she needs to get back to, and that comes through in his inquiry about her reasons for wanting to go back; him asking people why the hell they want to go back to Jakku is a staple of the opening act of the film.
Um no. Is isn't framed like that at all in the scene. He was clearly asking the question because JJ wanted to (prematurely) set up some sort of romantic tension in between them. He didn't want to know if this woman he just met had a life back on Jakku.
 
She didn't let Finn fight anybody first. She tried to shoot first like a proper Star Wars protagonist. Kylo was just quicker on the draw and got her with the Force Push.
If she had accepted her fate a little earlier, she would have asked Finn for the lightsaber. Then he wouldn't have gotten hurt.
 

Guy.brush

Member
How likely is it that the twist with perfect Rey will be that she was the one going mental in Luke's academy and they gave her a block and isolated her on Jakku?
 
Can we all just agree that the film is better than most tentpole movies that have come out recently but it still riddled with asinine plot holes and sloppiness that have come to be expected in Hollywood films these days in order to pander to the masses and not let anyone think for a few minutes?
 

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
Can we all just agree that the film is better than most tentpole movies that have come out recently but it still riddled with asinine plot holes and sloppiness that have come to be expected in Hollywood films these days in order to pander to the masses and not let anyone think for a few minutes?

no
 

Boke1879

Member
Saw the movie again and Han clearly knows about Rey. Too many guilty looks, nervous tone around her

Did you see the look Chewie gave her as as they were flying to Luke? He kinda gives her this caring look. Maybe he just respects her and all that and I'm looking too much into it.
 

Ophelion

Member
Can we all just agree that the film is better than most tentpole movies that have come out recently but it still riddled with asinine plot holes and sloppiness that have come to be expected in Hollywood films these days in order to pander to the masses and not let anyone think for a few minutes?

Ha! Agree.

This guy thinks we can agree on stuff. That's good.
 

Guy.brush

Member
Can we all just agree that the film is better than most tentpole movies that have come out recently but it still riddled with asinine plot holes and sloppiness that have come to be expected in Hollywood films these days in order to pander to the masses and not let anyone think for a few minutes?

Yes and no. I think the sloppiness and plot holes come from the premiere date being set first and a script written to meet that date. It is that simple. The story didn't cook long enough. This is a common thing in modern Hollywood as most franchises are developed around release schedules, not if and when a proper story worthy to be told is ready.
 
Um no. Is isn't framed like that at all in the scene. He was clearly asking the question because JJ wanted to (prematurely) set up some sort of romantic tension in between them. He didn't want to know if this woman he just met had a life back on Jakku.

I didn't get this impression at all during any of my three viewings.

Just after they escape Jakku, she says she'll need to get back to Jakku.
He says "why does everyone want to go back to Jakku?!"
Then he launches into a barrage of inquiries trying to figure out why the hell she would want to go back to Jakku, one of which is whether she has a boyfriend.

Again, all completely understandable given that we know he's terrified to go to Jakku because he thinks the First Order will capture him there.

What additional framing are you seeing that suggests another interpretation outside of the explicit context of the scene?
 

Bossun

Member
Good movie. But I hate how they made Rey all powerfull. If my hypothesis on her is true, it's even worse. I feel Finn got the short straw in the movie.
 

JoeInky

Member
J3SFybA.gif


Whenever I hear someone say Kylo Ren was the worst part of the movie.


He was probably my favourite character in the film, I wish they had more scenes with him and Snoke, like the scene in the book where they talk about Darth Vader.
 
Aside from running away from Maz and the lightsaber? And letting Finn fight Kylo first?

She didn't let Finn fight first. She was force pushed into the tree and knocked out when she tried to shoot Kylo...


Finn drops his blaster when he runs to Rey, Kylo then screams "TRAITOR" at him. After that, the light Saber duel starts.
 
Yes and no. I think the sloppiness and plot holes come from the premiere date being set first and a script written to meet that date. It is that simple. The story didn't cook long enough. This is a common thing in modern Hollywood as most franchises are developed around release schedules, not if and when a proper story worthy to be told is ready.
Fantastic point and a trend I've started to notice. Most films take years to make from greenlight to premiere.
 

Snake

Member
How likely is it that the twist with perfect Rey will be that she was the one going mental in Luke's academy and they gave her a block and isolated her on Jakku?

I don't think it's at all likely. It fits plausibly enough if you're trying to find every imaginable avenue for twists, but if we're to guess about how episode 8 and 9 might play out based on 7, they're not going to do something so retroactively damaging to our perception.

Also, with Rian Johnson directing, *Looper spoilers*
it would have the added bonus of being a hilariously terrible retread of Looper's plotline with the little kid.
 
Y'know, I'm actually considering doing a fan edit of The Force Awakens after I've got it on bluray. Something I never thought I'd be involved with.

It would have the following changes:
-Add the 20th Century Fox intro to lead into the Lucasfilm logo.

End of changes.

LOL

I knew the movie was missing something important.
It felt weird just starting up in silence.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Sorry I dont see any of that.

She mentions it, alluding to the abandonment issues, but I really don't see if affecting anything she does. It certainly doesn't affect her force savant power ups. She turns down the job offer from Han to go back, which has zero affect on her character as plot takes over. Maybe she was a little nervous when Finn was going to leave? That's all I can think off.

Not really a deep character effecting flaw. They could expand on that greatly in the next two movies, but there is nothing much in this one.

Couple posts on it from an earlier discussion: mine, The Librarian's.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
After the OT beat us senselessly over the head with the idea that success with the Force is a matter of faith and not skill basically every time Luke ran into trouble using it -

- I think that anyone who can't comprehend why Rey would beat Kylo in the end are simply incapable of understanding Star Wars.

Sort of agree, but the responsibility is on the movie to convey the info itself, not rely on other media such as prequels or novels, or comics, etc.

And another thing, Luke's use of the force at the end of ANH was just him using the force, targeting something that apparently is as mundane to him as casual shooting of womp rats back home. (Albeit while getting shot at by turbo lasers)

In TFA, however, Rey is arguably in a different and much more difficult situation. She is going up against something more formidable than a 2 meter hole. She uses the force, yes, but so does her opponent.
Prime Minister: "But you're wizards! You can do magic! Surely you can sort out - well - anything!"

Cornelius Fudge: "The trouble is, the other side can do magic too, Prime Minister."​



I think there's definitely a reason why people are more confused with this film, especially since the relationship between the Republic and the two actual factions is pretty obscure, but honestly I think if you treat the New Republic/New Senate the way people did the Old Republic/Imperial Senate in the original film, you come away with a pretty good sense of the status quo just based on General Hux's speech.


You do? And if so, it seems to put a damper on the impact of the end of ROTJ if it just means everything reverts back to how it used to be.
 

Ishida

Banned
I took that to mean that they had to start indoctrinating the kids into the Jedi mindset from an early age. If you start introducing magic mind powers to someone Anakin's age and they aren't 100% on board with your lifestyle things turn out bad

Padawans were taken from their homes at a very young age to start their training in order to avoid the creation of attachment to their parents/friends.

People typically don't read the prequels correctly, either.

The midichlorian thing is just an in-universe way of showing us that the institutionalized Jedi had embraced certain scientific observations in their understanding of the Force. In truth, the fact that some beings have more Force-sensitive cells in their bodies should have been an easy conclusion once we figured out that "the Force is strong in _____ families."

Obviously none of that means jack shit when it comes to understanding what it takes to be triumphant in the struggle between good and evil, because the prized Jedi Chosen One turned to the dark side and his son didn't defeat him through mastery of the Force but through sacrificial love.

But people seem to insist that it's a defining property of how the Force works in the prequels, despite Obi-Wan handily kicking Anakin's ass even though he's at a "lower power level," despite Yoda retreating to a less orthodox hermit-like lifestyle and teaching technique y the OT, etc.

Sadly, this post will go unnoticed. I'm baffled at the amount of "Star Wars fans" that still believe and claim that "the Force was explained as being Midichlorians". Basically, they are angry at their own headcanon despite the movies themselves saying nothing of the sort.
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
I don't get why this is so hard for some people.


Let's go over this:

1). Kylo Ren was seduced by Snoke, and betrayed Luke and the trainees, and slaughtered them.

2). Luke could not find it in his heart to kill his nephew at the time (or he was overwhelmed by Kylo with assistance from Knights of Ren or Snoke), and he KNEW he would be hunted down.

Which leads to 3). Luke hid his daughter away on Jakku so that when/if the First Order found him, his daughter wouldn't be killed with him.

Luke is the damn greatest Jedi alive in the universe. There is nobody better suited to defend his daughter. If he can't protect her, nobody can. And his nephew would have been aware that his cousin exists and try to find her.

But this is even beside the point. Luke could have been in great danger at some point, but 15 years are passing without him going back for her. Time of peace, new republic, no major things happening.

Not to mention that he could have taught her to defend herself too in all this time.

If Luke's the father, this series has the worst dads of all time. Light side, dark side, all the same.
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Anyone else think Unkar Plutt has a bigger role than we initially think?
 
Sort of agree, but the responsibility is on the movie to convey the info itself, not rely on other media such as prequels or novels, or comics, etc.

I think the movie gave us plenty of cues, the obvious one being Rey closing her eyes and "letting the Force guide her" and then beating Kylo immediately after he tells her she needs a teacher, as if to reiterate to the audience "that's not how the Force works." (The fact that this line even existed in the movie at all was also supposed to be a clue, methinks.)

And another thing, Luke's use of the force at the end of ANH was just him using the force, targeting something that apparently is as mundane to him as casual shooting of womp rats back home. (Albeit while getting shot at by turbo lasers)

Which makes it kind of silly that he needed to do anything special to hit the target, doesn't it?

In TFA, however, Rey is arguably in a different and much more difficult situation. She is going up against something more formidable than a 2 meter hole. She uses the force, yes, but so does her opponent.

Who do you think was on Luke's tail in that trench?

You do? And if so, it seems to put a damper on the impact of the end of ROTJ if it just means everything reverts back to how it used to be.

Yes, I do think the situations are intended to be eerily similar. Dark side/military folks terminate the galaxy's legitimate government, all that's left to oppose them is the Rebels/Resistance. We know there's a bit of crossover between the Senate and the Rebels via Leia who are standing up to the Empire, likewise between the Republic and the Resistance, with Leia standing up to the First Order.

As for the bolded comment: that's pretty much exactly what it means; we're back to the status quo from the OT; this is supposed to be a character-driven story, and having clashing governments just gets in the way of that, as we saw with the prequels.
 

Daemul

Member
Are people playing dumb or do they actually not know that the Jedi take force sensitive kids away at a very young age so that they don't get attached to their parents and family?

One more thing that would have worked a lot better about TPM if they had just cast Anakin a few years older.

Anakin was already too old when he came before the Council, it was why they were so reluctant to train him. He had too much of an attachment to his mother, something the Jedi do NOT want. They broke their own rules by allowing him to be trained and they came to pay the price for it.
 
How likely is it that the twist with perfect Rey will be that she was the one going mental in Luke's academy and they gave her a block and isolated her on Jakku?

Maybe she was actually Darth Revan this whole time

I would be ok with that.

I'm just curious now where they're headed in 8 and 9 between Kylo Ben and Rey. Are they both going to have some super training montage with their respective masters and then just face off Rocky style at the end of 8?

I'm just concerned with how by the numbers and predictable TFA was that they're really going to just play things really straight from here on out.
 
Anakin was already too old when he came before the Council, it was why they were so reluctant to train him. He had too much of an attachment to his mother, something the Jedi do NOT want. They broke their own rules by allowing him to be trained and they came to pay the price for it.

As a kid in the 80's I had always thought Anakin to be a 40s something man when he turned into Vader.
 
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