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 Paradigm wrote:
Am I the only one who thinks Luke might not make it through this? Put it in the context of an imminent attack by Kylo Ren and a bunch of Stormtroopers and that scene with Luke and R2 takes on the air of a goodbye. Then you've got Rey helpless watching something from the rock and looking utterly distraught (swap Rey for Luke, Luke for Ben and you've got ANH), and then both Han and Leia looking rather crushed... Perhaps I'm reading too far into it, but I have a bad feeling about this...

I think the prevailing rumor is that Luke has a bigger part to play in Episode VIII than he does in The Force Awakens. If anyone doesn't survive the film, it's going to be Han.

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:
Am I the only one who thinks Luke might not make it through this? Put it in the context of an imminent attack by Kylo Ren and a bunch of Stormtroopers and that scene with Luke and R2 takes on the air of a goodbye. Then you've got Rey helpless watching something from the rock and looking utterly distraught (swap Rey for Luke, Luke for Ben and you've got ANH), and then both Han and Leia looking rather crushed... Perhaps I'm reading too far into it, but I have a bad feeling about this...

I think the prevailing rumor is that Luke has a bigger part to play in Episode VIII than he does in The Force Awakens. If anyone doesn't survive the film, it's going to be Han.

Which could be as a Force Ghost. I agree Harrison is probably going to go out the way he'd hoped to before.

Did they improve the score? I mean I don't think it was possible, but watching the new trailer I actually think the score has improved.

I heard he was meant to die in the final movie but Lucas changed up the film so it would not be as dark as the Empire Strikes Back?

 motyak wrote:
Did they improve the score? I mean I don't think it was possible, but watching the new trailer I actually think the score has improved.

I'm with holding judgement until I've heard the whole thing there. So far, I do like the fact that this is a faithful update rather than a straight copy of the original score, and the new arrangements and pacings for classic pieces are interesting and exciting, but until I can hear it all I'm not going to say it's better or worse than any of the others.

How about some fun GIFs, courtesy of The Verge:

When your best friend is a soccer ball:


When you can't stop saying "pew pew pew" to yourself:


When you think you know what you're doing and then the other guy pulls out a lightsaber with two little lightsabers and suddenly you're a little more cognizant of the situation you're in:


When you're listening to a slow jam:

I do love that shot of Finn and Ren.

Finn: I got this. Give it your best shot, you Vader-wannabe half-droid!
Ren activates his saber.
Finn: Shiiiiii-

 Paradigm wrote:
I do love that shot of Finn and Ren.

Finn: I got this. Give it your best shot, you Vader-wannabe half-droid!
Ren activates his saber.
Finn: Shiiiiii-

Me too. In fact, I think it's my favorite shot out of the trailer... He looks so confident until Kylo raises his lightsaber and fear just washes over him; his body language and facial expressions say it all.

Favourite shot? That's a very tough one, but I'm probably going with the brief flash of Ren and the Stormtroopers in the middle of the storm. Or the X-wing diving into that massive dogfight. Or the one of Phasma and the Stormtroopers marching through the burning camp. Or... yeah, all of it!

So, Rey is Jaina and Kylo is Jacen?

And Kylo want to finish what Vader started, when the only thing Vader started on his own in the previous instalments is to kill Palpatine.

Dark Empire? Really, Disney?

Eh, maybe we'll get Mara Jade this way.

I like the fact that the 'style' of the film is in the same vein as the original 3. Does that make sense? If you compare a screen grab of Han & Chewie in the Falcon in the new movie, with the one of them on the Death Star (when they are chasing the Stormtroopers) it looks like it could be from the same roll of film. The 3 prequels have a different look and feel.

Wonder if this is due to Lucas going more CGI and Abrams using traditional methods... or am I a gibbering idiot?

Nope, I agree entirely. I get the impression from various interviews that JJ Abrams dislikes the prequels just as much as the rest of us, and is dead set on taking the style of the OT and running with it. I'm guessing the Anthology films will break away from that into their own territory a bit, which is great, but any Trilogy releases are going to be very much in the vein of the originals.

Lando. Where the hell is Lando?

We could have had a comedy element a la Jack Lemmon/Walter Matthau, with Solo and Lando trying to win over Leia





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 Paradigm wrote:
Nope, I agree entirely. I get the impression from various interviews that JJ Abrams dislikes the prequels just as much as the rest of us, and is dead set on taking the style of the OT and running with it. I'm guessing the Anthology films will break away from that into their own territory a bit, which is great, but any Trilogy releases are going to be very much in the vein of the originals.

I think it's more in the vein of Disney milking it for all it's worth, rather than a break from the originals.

As long as this film makes hundreds of millions of bucks, Disney probably won't care how good or bad it is.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Swastakowey wrote:
I heard he was meant to die in the final movie but Lucas changed up the film so it would not be as dark as the Empire Strikes Back?

I'm not buying that, especially when you consider how many ewoks died in the third part.

Apparently Han was meant to die early in the final film, and the ewoks were supposed to be reptilian people or something. Will have to find where I read about it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2010/08/16/wait-what-han-solo-was-supposed-to-die-in-return-of-the-jedi-but-george-lucas-changed-it-to-make-more-money

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/5-things-you-may-not-know-and-5-ways-that-return-of-the-jedi-could-have-been-much-much-cooler-20130524

http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/scifi/han-solo-supposed-die-return-jedi.html

Yea was the original script it seems.

 Swastakowey wrote:
Apparently Han was meant to die early in the final film, and the ewoks were supposed to be reptilian people or something. Will have to find where I read about it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2010/08/16/wait-what-han-solo-was-supposed-to-die-in-return-of-the-jedi-but-george-lucas-changed-it-to-make-more-money

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/5-things-you-may-not-know-and-5-ways-that-return-of-the-jedi-could-have-been-much-much-cooler-20130524

http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/scifi/han-solo-supposed-die-return-jedi.html

Yea was the original script it seems.

I thought the Ewoks were supposed to be the Viet-Cong or something?

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:

I thought the Ewoks were supposed to be the Viet-Cong or something?

More or less, yes. Lucas wanted a battle between the technologically advanced Empire and the primitive underdogs, inspired by the Vietnam conflict. He was originally going to use Wookies. In the director's commentary on the RotJ DVD he says that he changed his mind due to Chewie being shown as technologically savvy so Wookies didn't fit the theme the way he wanted... But the scuttlebutt back when the movie was originally released was just that they ran out of budget and so went with smaller (ie: cheaper to make) aliens instead. And the fact that ewoks were so much more marketable probably didn't hurt...

 Swastakowey wrote:
Apparently Han was meant to die early in the final film, and the ewoks were supposed to be reptilian people or something. Will have to find where I read about it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2010/08/16/wait-what-han-solo-was-supposed-to-die-in-return-of-the-jedi-but-george-lucas-changed-it-to-make-more-money

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/5-things-you-may-not-know-and-5-ways-that-return-of-the-jedi-could-have-been-much-much-cooler-20130524

http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/scifi/han-solo-supposed-die-return-jedi.html

Yea was the original script it seems.

There's some truth to this, but things weren't quite what those articles make them to be. Han was supposed to die -at the suggestion of Harrison Ford, who really wanted his character to bite it at some point- in the third movie of what was going to be a longer -and probably entirely different- saga. Back after the success of A New Hope, what Lucas had in mind was something not unlike the radio serials of the 40s. A "serialized movie" of sorts, spanning over a grand total of 9 movies. The plan was to deal with Vader in ep. 6 and kill the Emperor (and end the Empire, thus winning the war) in ep 9. Also, in that early script treatment, Leia was written as Luke's love interest, and his sister was an entirely new character introduced at some point in either ep 6 or ep 7.

When Lawrence Kasdan took the helm for The Empire Strikes Back, he and Lucas discarded most of this, finally settling for a trilogy. Eps 5 and 6 would condense what were episodes 7, 8 and 9 in Lucas' early drafts, including the deaths of both Vader and Palpatine, the revelation that Luke had a sister and, of course, Han Solo's death. In the end, it was this decision to shorten the Star Wars saga, not some grubby moneymaking scheme, what ultimately saved Han - Without a chance to introduce Luke Skywalker's sister's character, they finally opted to give this role to Leia. That created an interesting situation, given that she was going to be Luke's love interest in the first place. So they rewrote the entire love story angle of the movies to shift it from Luke to Han. I don't know if Solo's death scene was entirely removed from the script or -more likely- reworked into the carbonite scene we saw in TESB.

Wish I could provide sources for all this. It comes from a series of -rather long- threads at theforce.net and a SW script repository whose url escapes me at the moment. I'll try to bring something useful later when I get back from work.

That shot of Finn and Ren. For some reason Fun has hair, and it looks like John Snow from the back.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Swastakowey wrote:
Apparently Han was meant to die early in the final film, and the ewoks were supposed to be reptilian people or something. Will have to find where I read about it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2010/08/16/wait-what-han-solo-was-supposed-to-die-in-return-of-the-jedi-but-george-lucas-changed-it-to-make-more-money

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/5-things-you-may-not-know-and-5-ways-that-return-of-the-jedi-could-have-been-much-much-cooler-20130524

http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/scifi/han-solo-supposed-die-return-jedi.html

Yea was the original script it seems.

Actually I think the Ewoks were supposed to be Wookies, but they couldn't find enough tall people.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Actually I think the Ewoks were supposed to be Wookies, but they couldn't find enough tall people.

...which would have been easy to resolve. Just get a load 5ft people to play the Storm Troopers and 6ft guys to play the Wookies. Anything close up with the main characters, the Wookies could have stood on boxes, used false perspective etc.

It's a shame, because Wookies vs. Empire would have been a much better Battle of Endor. I enjoyed the Ewoks when I was 7, but they haven't aged well like the rest of the trilogy.

 Flashman wrote:
but they haven't aged well like the rest of the trilogy.

Would giving them EYELIDS made it better

 motyak wrote:
Did they improve the score? I mean I don't think it was possible, but watching the new trailer I actually think the score has improved.

It seems like a more nuanced, grown-up version of the original. Which is also my impression of the overall film based on the trailer.

Edit: Which is my way of saying, boy, that didn't suck at all.

As much as I'm looking forward to this new Star Wars film (if only to see the return of Han)

let's remember we've all got bigger fish to fry before then.

SPECTRE is out on Monday.

You'd better believe it!!!

 Agent_Tremolo wrote:


There's some truth to this, but things weren't quite what those articles make them to be. Han was supposed to die -at the suggestion of Harrison Ford, who really wanted his character to bite it at some point- in the third movie of what was going to be a longer -and probably entirely different- saga. Back after the success of A New Hope, what Lucas had in mind was something not unlike the radio serials of the 40s. A "serialized movie" of sorts, spanning over a grand total of 9 movies. The plan was to deal with Vader in ep. 6 and kill the Emperor (and end the Empire, thus winning the war) in ep 9. Also, in that early script treatment, Leia was written as Luke's love interest, and his sister was an entirely new character introduced at some point in either ep 6 or ep 7.

Most of the critique of Lucas is the idea is that he sold out for profit. however there could have been no better sell out for profit opportunity but to continue rolling out episodes 7 to 9 through the 80's.


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 Breotan wrote:

 insaniak wrote:
But JJ's treatment of Star Trek was exactly what got me looking forward to him doing Star Wars.

Can someone please purge this heretic? Damn, where's Yak when you need him?

I agree prefering JJ Abrams Star Trek is heresy, however it looks like for Star Wars there is a continuation of style and tone from the original trilogy rather than a departure.

We can hope. The Star Treks were an abomination. I really was let down when I heard it was JJ directing this because of what he did to Star Trek. I was even more let down when Disney decided to discard the three decades of Star Wars Canon that us fans supported to keep the ball rolling for the franchise. Thank you for pissing on my childhood. Then there was the crappy Aftermath book which really was the nail in the coffin. At this point it looks Star Warsy and I will go watch it hoping for a good sci-fi flick on par with Guardians, but I am not expecting much beyond that. Aside from cool Storm Trooper and TIE pilot costumes, it won't be Star Wars to me without Mara Jade, Talon Carrde, Thrawn and all the other characters I have grown up with.

They should have simply done a reboot, recasting the major characters, and started 5 years after Endor with the Thrawn trilogy. That way Harrison Ford would have been happy and fans would have their Star Wars universe back the way it should be.

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
As much as I'm looking forward to this new Star Wars film (if only to see the return of Han)

let's remember we've all got bigger fish to fry before then.

SPECTRE is out on Monday.

You'd better believe it!!!

*crickets*


No one cares about Bond in a Star Wars thread!

In A New Hope Han Solo believes the Jedi and the force to be a sham, hocus pocus, rather than something real physical property of the universe. The prequels show the Jedi to be relatively few in number and insular, most of the people that know about them and interact with them are senior government, and later on they are all dead or allied to the empire. It's likely that most normal people know them by name but have never seen one or have seen their powers. Once the empire takes hold it wouldn't be so hard to portray them as some weird religion that had no real powers.

Col. Dash wrote:
We can hope. The Star Treks were an abomination. I really was let down when I heard it was JJ directing this because of what he did to Star Trek. I was even more let down when Disney decided to discard the three decades of Star Wars Canon that us fans supported to keep the ball rolling for the franchise. Thank you for pissing on my childhood. Then there was the crappy Aftermath book which really was the nail in the coffin. At this point it looks Star Warsy and I will go watch it hoping for a good sci-fi flick on par with Guardians, but I am not expecting much beyond that. Aside from cool Storm Trooper and TIE pilot costumes, it won't be Star Wars to me without Mara Jade, Talon Carrde, Thrawn and all the other characters I have grown up with.

They should have simply done a reboot, recasting the major characters, and started 5 years after Endor with the Thrawn trilogy. That way Harrison Ford would have been happy and fans would have their Star Wars universe back the way it should be.

I agree with *nothing* in this post. Truly impressive work by you.

 Howard A Treesong wrote:
In A New Hope Han Solo believes the Jedi and the force to be a sham, hocus pocus, rather than something real physical property of the universe. The prequels show the Jedi to be relatively few in number and insular, most of the people that know about them and interact with them are senior government, and later on they are all dead or allied to the empire. It's likely that most normal people know them by name but have never seen one or have seen their powers. Once the empire takes hold it wouldn't be so hard to portray them as some weird religion that had no real powers.

I really, really like the idea that certain aspects of the original trilogy have faded into legend. When Rey talks about the stories, it parallels our experience as viewers, and it's why that moment in the trailer resonates so strongly.

It will be interesting to learn *why* Luke has hidden himself away. It reminds me of Paul Atreides' self-imposed exile in the desert, in an attempt to wind down the Jihad. (From the beginning, SW has gotten some pretty good material from the Dune series.) In this case, maybe it was an attempt to calm the Force? As a highly powerful Light Side user, did the use of his abilities threaten to create an equivalent Dark Side response?

I suspect we're going to learn some things about the nature of the Force in these new films.

That's a good point about the OT now being stories. If someone can say to Han or Luke or Leia 'You were at Yavin?' in the same tone that Luke asks Ben 'You fought in the Clone Wars?' (as Rey basically seems to imply in the trailer) then awesome! I don't want this film to just copy ANH, but if there can be nods and symmetries like that then bring it on!

I remember when all this "Disney is going to continue the story stuff" first started I was hoping to get Mara Jade and Jaina Solo.

I also wanted to read the sword of the Jedi trilogy.

 gorgon wrote:

It will be interesting to learn *why* Luke has hidden himself away. It reminds me of Paul Atreides' self-imposed exile in the desert, in an attempt to wind down the Jihad. (From the beginning, SW has gotten some pretty good material from the Dune series.) In this case, maybe it was an attempt to calm the Force? As a highly powerful Light Side user, did the use of his abilities threaten to create an equivalent Dark Side response?

I'm calling it now: the "Character X is Lukes kid" theory is true, and Lukes just hiding from child support