Star Wars Episode 7 and Disney buy Lucas Film

[JOE SOAP]

I'd assumed Kylo Ren is just keeping his true identity a secret. Perhaps it would be too easy to find out his true identity if he showed his face. I suspect it suits both the First Order and Resistance that his true identity as the son of the most prominent resistance leader isn't public knowledge.

As he entreated to grandpappy, Kylo Ren has performance issues. A scary voice and helmet to hide behind keeps his pecker up.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

I'd assumed Kylo Ren is just keeping his true identity a secret. Perhaps it would be too easy to find out his true identity if he showed his face. I suspect it suits both the First Order and Resistance that his true identity as the son of the most prominent resistance leader isn't public knowledge.

As he entreated to grandpappy, Kylo Ren has performance issues. A scary voice and helmet to hide behind keeps his pecker up.

During [spoiler]Rey's vision/flashback she see's Kylo Ren with the rest of his order and they're all wearing those helmets.[/spoiler] Maybe that helmet is just the trappings of his order, in the same way that all the Prequel Jedi seem to wear desert hermit robes.

[JOE SOAP]

As he entreated to grandpappy, Kylo Ren has performance issues. A scary voice and helmet to hide behind keeps his pecker up.

During [spoiler]Rey's vision/flashback she see's Kylo Ren with the rest of his order and they're all wearing those helmets.[/spoiler] Maybe that helmet is just the trappings of his order, in the same way that all the Prequel Jedi seem to wear desert hermit robes.

It works in cases of both villain identity and character - there are a few scenes illustrating that it means more than just a helmet for Kylo: the scene with Rey in the torture chamber and him praying to another helmet of note.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Thanks all; it makes a bit more sense now.  And I suppose (most) Stormtroopers wear face-covering helmets pretty much all the time, so it's kind of a done thing in the First Order already, as it was in the Empire. 

However, I'm still tearing my hair out* about why Han's ship is called after a member of some avian species from a planet in a galaxy far, far away from his, a long time into his future. And to make matters worse, the name is preceded by time period that in cosmic terms is utterly arbitrary and should be virtually meaningless to an interplanetary drifter.

*I'm really, really not.

[radiator]

Very much this. It's not much good complaining that Rey may or may not be A/B/ or C when the film doesn't say either way.

It is precisely because the film doesn't say either way that is the problem - and also that you can clearly see it was one thing that has been hastily re-edited. We don't need to get her entire life story, but for it to work dramatically we need to have a character that is consistent and has a clear motivation. Rey is a mass of weird little contradictions that - to my mind - do not add up to a convincing protagonist:

She's a nobody dreaming of a life of high adventure... who, for reasons I found ill-defined and unconvincing, refuses the call to adventure when it lands in her lap.

She's a resourceful and scrappy survivor... who seems content to live in miserable poverty while surrounded by plentiful, easy means of escape, all for the rather paper-thin reason that she's waiting for her family to return. A family who, lets not forget, abandoned her to her predicament. Love those guys!

She's a capable space pilot... who hasn't left Jakku since she was a young child.

She's a supernaturally gifted mechanic... who is for reasons unknown eking out a meagre existence doing unskilled salvage work.

She a nobody... who learns how to use the Force through osmosis. She may well turn out to be a former student of Luke's, but I really don't think she will, because from a narrative and dramatic pov that ship has sailed. All saving that revelation for a later film does is harm this one.


Look, I don't expect Star Wars characters to be anything other than broad archetypes, but I feel like with Rey they didn't even clear this low bar, and, as I said above, all these weird quirks and contradictions are seemingly a result of changing the script so that she is no longer Rey [spoiler]Solo[/spoiler].

I feel like people are glossing over a lot of issues with the character writing because "Yay! Ass-kicking female Jedi!" and it seems like Abrams is getting a free pass on exactly the kind of thing he usually gets torn apart for because Star Wars.

It's not a stand alone film and can't be analyzed as such.

Yes, it can. I very strongly believe that all films have to work - on some level - as 'standalone' films, and as such should not have to rely on sequels or ancillary material to explain things like the basic motivation of the main character.

[Modern Panther]

I assumed that Rey behaved in this way simply because that's the same archetypal, hero's journey monomyth that A New Hope uses.

Luke longs for adventure, but when the opportunity arises decides that he's got to go home and go to bed.

They both meet mysterious old men who impart secret knowledge.

Luke's given a gift of a light sabre.  Rey is given a space ship.  Both of them unlock a previously unknown power in the holder.

Sure, Rey can be regarded as a strangle little character... but she is Luke, and grown men have been dressing up as him for nearly forty years.

[TordelBack]

I really don't agree about Rey being inconsistent. [spoiler]She's desperately lonely, she's surviving until her family come back for her (which may be na unnaturally strong command, given her likely connections) while yearning to leave. Her bond with BB8 is because he is under exactly the same imperative, and her desire to help him out of the same predicament is her principal motivation through most of the film. It's only when the events in Maz's castle open up the 'larger world' and the possibility of another sort of belonging ahead rather than behind, and Kylo abducts and tortures her, kills or injures her 'new family', that her thoughts turn to other things..[/spoiler]. That seems very straightforward to me.

Also Radiator, while I agree in principle about standalone films, I think that's asking a bit much of a flick subtitled 'Episode VII'. Rey wants her old family, then a new family; Finn wants out of the Wermacht, and then to save his friend from his former commander; Leia wants to find Luke, and save her son; Han wants his family back; Poe wants to serve Leia and the Resistance; Kylo Ren wants Luke dead; Hux wants to be the big bully on the block. Is any more required?

[TordelBack]

Balls, wanted to spoiler that, but the edit time limit expired. Apologies.

[Goaty]

More info about TR-8R;

About the First Order stormtrooper fans have designated TR-8R. Though Gwendoline Christie's Captain Phasma was dubbed the Boba Fett of the new trilogy by Lucasfilm ahead of release, her character proved a disappointment and this baton-twirling trooper, who has one line and a fight scene with Finn, has essentially moved into that position instead.

Now Lucasfilm has revealed some backstory about the character. Dubbed FN-2199 (aka. 'Nines'), the character was introduced in Greg Rucka's book "Before the Awakening" and trained and served on a squad with Finn (then FN-2187) in the First Order. His weapon is called a Z6 baton and he's part of an elite squad of riot controllers.

Skywalker Sound sound editor David Acord provided the voice for the character, while veteran stunt performer performed in the suit on-set.

[jacob g]

His weapon is called a Z6 baton and he's part of an elite squad of riot controllers.

Now I want Marvel comicbook spinof about him... by Al Ewing. Just sayin'.

[Theblazeuk]

Luke is a capable space pilot. Who only ever flew T-65s down Beggar's Canyon before...

[TordelBack]

Luke is a capable space pilot. Who only ever flew T-65s down Beggar's Canyon before...

Worse than that, it was a T-16 which has 3 wings and no nose, so really couldn't be expected to handle remotely like a T-65 high performance starfighter.

But it's okay, because he's a boy, which means he's a hero when he does these things. Rey however is a stinky girl, so when she does it she's a pathetic feminazi liberal PC Mary Sue ruining our Warz.

[sheridan]

His weapon is called a Z6 baton and he's part of an elite squad of riot controllers.

And reminded me a lot of similar weapons in one of the prequels (handled by the droid army, I think).

[sheridan]

Sure, Rey can be regarded as a strangle little character... but she is Luke, and grown men have been dressing up as him for nearly forty years.

They have?  In the RotJ black Jedi robes, I hope.  Which is what all the Jedi in the prequels should have been wearing, instead of Alec Guinness' desert camouflage.

[JamesC]

I thought Rey was great and her mysterious past is a part of the plot that's obviously going to be revealed at a later date. Everything she does can be put down to natural adeptness or being attuned to the Force (or previously developed skills such as single combat). Nothing she does contradicts what we've already learned about the Force in other films. People keep complaining that she can use the force without training. Well, who was the first force-user and who trained them? She only tries out things that she knows are demonstrably possible.

As for her being diminished because she was 'obviously supposed to be someone else', well I think that's bollocks, frankly.