How does it feel to be part of the most anticipated movie of the year
Pretty pretty exciting really really pretty exciting. I think
Hello there ladies and gentlemen, welcome to part three of a critique of the force awakens
Obviously the rise of Skywalker has been released in the middle of this analysis
And I'm sure that'll have a ripple effect on how everything is contextualized and rewrites would do
Hopefully that explains
the strange
timeline upon which these videos have been published but with the additional context and the time given for the editing to be
Completed I should be able to present to you the best work that I can regardless
Please check out parts 1 & 2 before 3
For context unless you are new and you simply want to give this video a shot and with that let's move right along
I
Used to be
Quite a poignant line, isn't it?
Upon Han leaving the room Finn shares Hans old rank as a rebellion general a war hero, though
Rey corrects him. She says he was a smuggler which can be pretty frustrating for audience members
It compounds how much this new world forgot the old while telling us that Hans exploits as general really weren't
widespread or impactful enough for many parts of the will to remember and to see how she knows him as
This epic the legendary scavenger
It seems very unlikely that Rey would be completely unaware of Luke's
Existence beyond myth status and despite that she's fully aware of Han Solo being this epic smuggler
That really doesn't make a lot of sense to me, han Solo the rebellion general
I guess weird of Hans time as a smuggler was more
Well known than his time fighting for the rebels despite being with them for years
During which the Empire was crippled and removed of its position as overlord of the galaxy
That's how famous his ineptitude with smuggling has become. Alright, I guess that's how that works. What's next?
Right, then there are many moments in storytelling as a whole that act as a direct reference to their own histories
it could be a character a
Location or an event to elicit that sense of where it all began or what it means to have come this far
It's obviously intended to give the audience quite the bout of nostalgia and that can be extremely effective
But it doesn't always work. That way there are many degrees of success in execution
some properties can embarrass their predecessors by taking the event and changing what it originally meant some can SAP their
Predecessors legacy by using it to jumpstart their own some lean
respectfully on their predecessors evoking a strong sense of progression and appreciation for a bygone era and some use the
Potency of their predecessors to carve out something powerful and new in the present. It's in all forms of media
Constructed with appreciation and love or cobbled together with cynicism and greed star wars
The force awakens is a nostalgia ridden rollercoaster by design. So of course this phenomenon is present throughout the films
It's been highlighted already when trying to give some form of a judgement on these events to determine a level of quality
We look at the mechanics that led to them and what was achieved by creating them where they earned and what do they say?
Let's look at Lord of the Rings spoilers for those who haven't seen the trilogy yet
Jay Aragorn
Wielding under real is the direct result of Elrond knowing that his daughter's life is now tied to the fate of the One Ring
Arwen fell in love with Aragorn that commitment comes with a heavy price
and despite that she remains committed this in addition to
standing fast against sauron's forces challenges Elrond's lack of faith in men if he is to help them to give this
Corruptible race another chance while saving his daughter then they will need resources
They will take the demote road to seek those who dwell in the mountain
murderers traitors
men who once betrayed the king that
Wielded the very sword that's reveal is the climax of this scene if they should fight for the light in middle-earth and win
Arwen and many other lives could be spared and Aragorn could lead the people of middle-earth to a new age
Something he earned throughout his journey in these films. So how many cylinders are firing for this scene?
The sword is a direct connection to the opening of this trilogy. It represents how far we've come while reminding the audience of experiences
They would have had as early as the prologue it is the weapon that was used in the fight against Sauron
Broken and reforged ready to assault the darkness
once again
It represents a significant level of support from one of the more cynical characters in the story
Showing that there is still hope for the world of men
It represents the lifeline of a loved one and a chance to save her
It is recognition or even a milestone
For aragorn's actions and his journey and it is a supremely powerful relic in this world
but most narrative lis relevant it offers command of a bolstering force for winning an impossible war for life in middle-earth and
Yet perhaps most meaningful of all it will facilitate the atonement of a significant past betrayal
Reinforcing one of the many themes of the entire trilogy man's capacity for redemption
The plot the world the characters and the themes are all exploding in this moment. It pays off in essentially every
foundational category for storytelling
Meanwhile we have something like ready player one a film that would like to recreate a scene from The Shining because it's a characters
11th favorite horror movie do you remember that scene? Oh, look, there's another scene from that movie and another
It's an attempt to elicit the connection the audience likely has with that content only to
Artificially attach that to this new content because if you can make an audience feel good at any cost to craftsmanship
That means you succeeded right the interesting element
Is that eliciting a sense of nostalgia out of your audience is easier the more powerful or revered that original reference was?
However, the more this is attempted the more the returns diminish
My past has caught up with me I won't be back though the death of the Terminator franchise is a whole other thing
The Lord of the Rings
boasts a script that works extremely hard to make this moment meaningful whether the reference to the past is
Remembered or not ready player one is equipped with a script that shoehorns The Shining
Among other things in under a blatant contrivance and a bungled reference a creator who hates his own creation
And it's based on the best-selling book by Stephen King
Who hated the movie The Shining movie was indeed maligned by Stephen King, but he didn't create the movie adaptation
He created the book Stanley Kubrick created the shining movie and he didn't hate it neither
Did King hate the book that he wrote making the reference like all of those in ready player one, hollow and manipulative?
So let's bring it back
Han Solo is reunited with the Millennium Falcon and the main title theme is played
This is a major blast of nostalgia to see Han back in the cockpit of his now legendary
Ship that the audience haven't seen together for as long as 30-plus years, but why is this meaningful for him?
Well, he arbitrarily lost his ship at some point
And now he has it back because now is when he found it
none of that has explained beyond thin throwaway lines because this moment is exactly why this
Happened it is yet
another attempt at artificially attaching old emotions to new content Hans reaction to seeing the cockpit as a result of
Significant contrivances and rather than expressing that he is taking back. What's his with triumph?
He is expressing reverence which happens to match how the audience likely feel put simply this chase
is kind of a Star Wars wish-fulfillment for these characters and for the audience that you get to fly and
pilot and and fire from one of the great ships for Star Wars
Han feels as the creators believe the audience feels in order to simulate wish fulfillment
It's a form of catharsis
Convincing the audience that they are getting their wish without having to do much of anything outside of a key jangle
batsu the same where it's a little private moment of him in the cockpit realized with
This strategy worked wonders on the audience in 2015 myself included
Despite being delivered without support from the narrative itself. It's almost entirely a meta moment and that exposes the goal
They had it's all very deliberate careful and corporate even still there are more mistakes
Check out this clip from the documentary made about episode 8 called the director and the Jedi you made these dice
Apparently it's what Han Solo used to win the million. So he's always kept him hanging out
Well, someone didn't get that particular memo according to the Han Solo
solo movie Han prevented Lando from cheating and he won the Millennium Falcon that way the
Significance of the dice came from being a memento. He provided his then-girlfriend and prior to that
It was an item han used to decorate his speeder the last Jedi made a rather big deal about these dice which might have worked
As a piece of Han Solo or something
He valued had we known more about the dice in the first place
But the context provided by solo makes this moment in the last Jedi
fiercely insulting why in the world would Luke Skywalker give his sister the love of Han Solo's life a token that
represents Hans
Ex-girlfriend. You have a problem with the dice. Yes
Oh, it's it's really disrespectful to layer two had a token of Hans previous relationship, dude
Didn't have another one
These two dice represent your bottom and top half connected mechanically
It should be like thanks man, that's the thing I needed when thinking about how they
Operate the dice what was better than the dice, I mean
If he wouldn't have given her anything that would have been better than that I don't agree with that, I'm sorry
It showed that he cared about Hans death he was sorry that he wasn't there to prevent it
It was just like a little like, you know, I'm sorry about
Hans previous relationship. I miss my friend too. I
Don't know. Why do you think haunted like a bunch of chicks after layer? No, we're going from that movie that came out so
That exists before Leia that was like way before he met. Well, that was our whole point
Yes, that's the point so so Keira should have been the one to get
Yes, if anybody should get the diver here absolutely should get other guys that that's true Kiran Kiran the dice receiver
Yeah
We saw Hahn looking at him
so lovingly
I think you really like these dice and we always used to talk about
The specialty of it connected to these dice that I knew that was you
But it turns out the entire mass is just miscommunication
within Lucasfilm during the force awakens filming a scene was organized in which Han
Places the dice on the Falcon and there is an explanation that he won the ship with them
This would help tie it all together if it was accompanied by an explanation for layer to care about it beyond being a trinket of
Hans history, but it was cut and as we know the last Jedi was being written before TFA was finished
So I imagine it was in the original TFA script. Ryan
Johnson, read it and made it a very meaningful item for his sequel
Once the force awakens was released or even beforehand
Ryan would have seen the final cut and upon
Realizing what was missing chose to keep this moment the same or he didn't even spot that it was an issue
Which is far more likely this attitude in filmmaking and communication on a production team wide affair
Will absolutely cripple your story at the core just because it was your idea doesn't mean you can't alter it
I will never stop telling people to redraft their scripts for all kinds of reasons
one of many is that the things you do in the final portions of your script can be
Drastically altered by what you found you did in the opening portions or vice versa?
Never be too attached to delete or change a portion while editing. You might just come out with something better
anyway
Han says that someone has placed a compressor on the ignition
Line and that the hyperdrive will now take more stress at the end of the sentence. He and Ray finish it together
I thought it was a mistake too much stress on the hyperdrive
This is a clear method of showing that Ray knows his stuff and it can function as a character
Realizing something about another in a natural way opening their relationship up unfortunately
This is another attribute of Ray's to add to the list
she is adepts of identifying the mechanical functions of the Millennium Falcon with this skill extending to other ships of most
Kinds a separate issue is that this is a large portion of Ray enhance development already
Completed only to be heavily banked upon later
The sad reality is that there is potential here like many elements of this story, but they are rarely consistent and often left behind
despite their protests han decides to eject finn and rey he seems to be insulted at the prospect of helping them almost as if he's
behaving more like he would have in the opening of a new hope it shows the inevitability the the impossibility that
Han Solo could run away from his Star Wars roots to simply state that betraying
His own roots is what Han Solo can or would do isn't enough
You can't just play where they developed an outright iconic character because you want to see a particular
Circumstance play out. We know this doesn't work when put to paper
You have to be respectful and justified or you will not fit inside an existing story
Damaging both your own content and the content that gave you this opportunity coming back to the scene Hans stops at the mention of Luke
Skywalker, but before we explore that we discover that Han and Chewie scarier that has the Falcon inside is being boarded now, let me clarify
119 seconds from the moment that Han meets finn and rey the ship gets boarded by two different
factions that han is meant to be doing a smuggling job for each
How unlucky han is unable to barter with these people
He doesn't even try offering the raft ours being that they must have some value if he's smuggling them
He also struggles to even begin talking his way out of it. He's mostly just walked over during this scene
They then say that his game is old
I really wanted to see that han was at the end of his rope that he had been
Running and gunning the way we might have expected and now he is literally at death's door
There is nowhere left for him to run and he's wanted in every corner of the galaxy
JJ wanted to show that Han was essentially defeated after all this time
He managed to run up a debt with everyone in the galaxy and there's nowhere left to run as if to say the ooty made
It clear that he wasn't very good at his job
When that was clearly not the case
that
Commentary also implies that Hans debt to Jabba being missed wasn't caused by his
Investment in the rebellion nor his desire to be free of the Empire rather
It was Hans
incompetence as a smuggler
despite the fact that he did complete the job and get the money he earned and now his owing Jabba has apparently been taken to
The enth degree Han Solo simply owes everyone in the galaxy. There's no
She left for you to swindle Han wasn't a swindler or a liar
He was harshly honest if anything
This is a staggering miss Reed of what we knew from Star Wars
Han lost his shipment for Jabba because he was avoiding the Empire. He eventually earned the money back for Jabba
He didn't cheat him the issue was his position as outlaw and his investment in his friends and the Rebel Alliance
Anyway rey and finn end up staying beneath the floor to avoid being seen from there
One of the factions points out that han owes money to both his own crew and another crew leading to him introducing them
This could work as a reveal if not for the fact that it makes no sense
How is it that han was aware that he was boarded, but only knew about one ship instead of both
How is it that one faction knew when the other one was going to open their side of the ship?
This scene is played for a lot of laughs despite the rampant death
So perhaps I'm not supposed to be paying that much attention
But it is a blatant piece of inconvenience just after we got a heavy convenience for our protagonists
These are really starting to stack up on top of this
The factions are both aware of the first order hunting a BB unit and two fugitives
This is never confirmed as a bounty, but I imagine it functions as one since these factions probably wouldn't show so much interest. Otherwise
So the idea is that not only are these gangs working together. But now you realize they're working in league with the first order
Oh, wow, you say that like it just makes sense
both parties actually
work together which makes it rather curious for them to open up separate contracts with Han or even allow a
Second contract when Han hasn't come through on the first on top of that
why even speak to Han instead of capturing him immediately the scene implies that they didn't care whether Han had what they wanted and if
They work for the first-order
Then of course they have to capture Han I mean Han is wanted across the galaxy
The first order would obviously want him at that point not to mention that he is responsible for the destruction of two Death Star's
I imagine they have quite a hatred for him, which means these two factions would surely capture him the moment
They initially met at the very least
They would make the first order aware of the situation instead of waiting until they've escaped judging from the scene
It's not like they wanted the wrath tars
Come to think of it who would have hired an elderly man and his dog to capture enormous man-eating meatballs
I say that despite the fact that they've actually managed to capture a lot of these things
So maybe I'm wrong or maybe the team that caught them have all died in the process. I
just
Have a bigger crew sadly. This disaster of a scene is not over folks first as I've brought up before
Logistically, the first order should be very close by if not within sight of the Millennium Falcon right now being that they were parked over
jakku
And they had men in the field with comms that would have established what kind of ship they're in and what coordinates they left on
To give a stardestroyer enough space and time to lock them down
This is before you realize that these two factions work with the first order as well despite that the first order themselves
Do not board the ship. They are nowhere to be seen. Like I said, they are only contacted once the Falcon escapes
Secondly, just try and follow this nonsense
It is established that the first order wants you chase and capture our heroes more than anything
But that doesn't matter because the film goes out of its way to show that the first order simply cannot find them moments later
Despite having a strong tracker as well as many visuals of the ship and direct communication with the people on the carrier
But that doesn't matter because a new faction sprung out of nowhere that apparently works with the first order begins chasing them anyway
But that doesn't matter because they are easily avoided and never show up again leaving our heroes free and clear regardless
But that doesn't matter because someone else
loyal to the first order alerts the first order to our hero's
Location bringing the first order back into the plot if it's not clear
I'm trying to highlight that instead of using a simple logical progression
We keep getting concessions to overcome every obstacle in real time
Each addition has to bend or break rules to overcome the last when all they needed was
Kylo Hux and their troopers chasing them consistently as opposed to generating a new faction that apparently works with them
Anyway, the former would actually support the first orders intimidation factor instead of having it deflate regularly
They could be using the scanner that Han alludes to in a future scene
They could be using a tracker that a sinner the person invented and this scene could have been Han helping Finn and Rey
Escape the first order to get his ship back instead of these random
laughingstock factions
Thirdly, this scene is an open admission that factions in Star Wars are very aware of the first order yet
We've been given no information in terms of what's being done about the crimes that the first order consistently commits against other
Factions the Starkiller base is apparently shrouded in secrecy
So why is the entire galaxy allowing them to run rampant is?
Jakku relevant to the New Republic is the attack on jakku soil an act of war
What about the collection of child slaves general factions?
Just don't seem to mind the first order that much and the idea that the first order are covert is entirely out of the question
Plenty of major players know about their misdeeds and some are blatantly connected to the resistance
Why was nothing done to stop them at this point considering the regime?
They are trying to resurrect why aren't there more discussions of past Wars and failings in terms of stopping them fourthly
The only reason that these gangs suspect that Han is harboring
The fugitives is not because they're in the area that the Falcon had previously been spotted by the first order instead
It's because they recognize the BB unit from the information about the fugitives
there are well if Finn and Rey are rightfully going below to hide then why not send bb-8 down there with
Han knows that the first order are specifically after the Droid what about
Stays with me until I get rid of the gang they have back and be on your way. Oh he's staying with you. But why?
First Arthur is looking for one just like it
Oh
That's why finally the absolute
Inconvenient timing of having both of these factions show up just seconds after han and chewie arrived is evidence of the ADHD
This script is suffering from it requires constant action to stay satisfied
Which means they just keep adding more to the plot making it contradictive and downright ridiculous
That's not to say the film lacks. Any calm scenes scenes in which the plot can settle instead of being rushed forward
Coincidentally those scenes are of much higher quality than this
Now if we hold on a second and go back before the bigger drama of this scene happens han says, oh great
It's a guavian death gang must attract us from then too. This is a throwaway line and shockingly
I have a lot to say about it
This line has been written to explain that not only do these factions exist
But that they happen to be on harm's trail right before he got here and that they have arrived now
This is meant to explain why the drama is about to take place
But all it really does is click the can down the road. Where is this other place?
And how did they find harm there in order to track him here?
This inconvenience is explained by being the direct consequence of a different
Inconvenience one that is not explained. And so I really don't understand throwaway lines like this
They're a complete waste of an opportunity to soften poorer plot points and repair your story
Assuming it's even in a state that lends itself to that when crafting throwaway lines
You need to connect to elements that already exist
Thus creating a sense of cause and effect through as natural a dialogue as you can when the story starts to appear thin
So what can we do here?
well
We know these factions can be in the first orders employ and harm deals with mercenaries
Smugglers and bounty hunters all the time in his line of work
Let's use those pieces of information in a discussion that already exists while altering a lot of it to include some throwaway lines
when Han sees the ship on the terminal he could say
Out tasu leech find us this far out first order got a base on jakku
The first order came for us we have to get bb-8 to the resistance
Whose tassel each an old friend and a mercenary he works with the first order
He stays where the money is, but if they're sending him, they don't know you're here with those few lines
We've connected pieces of information about Hans profession to a new character
One of the many people that Han would know in this galaxy this character can now represent a new faction with their own culture
Boosting the will building on top of sharing insights about Hans life up till now in subsequent careful dialogue in addition
We acknowledge that
The first order has lost the location of the Falcon but the ships orbiting Jack who are all being checked by the nearby Star Destroyer
Deploying different units this new character was sent as a talented mercenary with an experienced crew that is familiar with Han Solo
And his abilities as a smuggler making him a strong candidate to successfully capture Han Solo enemy of the Empire
For the first order while possibly finding the other fugitives
this explains why these people were in the area why they arrived on han ship and why we don't see
stormtroopers arrive instead despite the first-order being aware of the ship
We also allow a new character from Hans history with similar reasoning to Lando's introduction in Empire
We also have all of the pieces for Han to have a verbal and physical
Confrontation with someone who knows him relatively. Well thus providing an action scene
but before that during their back-and-forth
You can explore any element that remains weak while adding plenty of new tidbits to
Strengthen the pieces that are missing between the ot and the new trilogy
and so what you end up with is a few throwaway lines that set up opportunities for character exploration pushing the plot and
Providing an opening for will building it was based on what we knew and it now makes something
Ridiculous seem a lot more reasonable your new action scene can involve Rey using a terminal to assist her allies with cover banking on her
established mechanic knowledge Finn can cover Han and Chewie during the battle while trying to remain level-headed in avoiding any lethal shots to the
enemies
this can be something Han notices and explores with Finn in a future scene leaving us with Han and Shu
making strong use of their weapons and knowledge of the ship showing us that they might be old, but this still talented and
Dangerous with this we can drop the raft ours and shave the scene down while keeping every substantive detail that was there to begin with
however
Performing script repairs is pointless because there are so many more foundational elements to alter if we wanted something
Functional the point of what I was doing here is actually more broad than that. Oh great
segue V and death game
must attract us from then to
see the goal with this line was to reassure the audience that something in the script that seems ridiculous is
Absolutely logical the issue is that they had no basis for it. Other than well
Han probably gets trapped people do tracking Boba Fett did it obi-wan did it the people probably do it but by this logic
Anyone can tune up anywhere at any time. The failing would come in realizing that the two aforementioned
Instances of tracking weren't random at all
There are countless examples of throwaway lines across many stories wherein the writers are trying to make up for missing
Groundwork or prep for something ridiculous and thus create a small piece of information
Forced in at just the right time to act as an excuse
For example, what do you do?
If the only escape you can come up with for your two young characters in
Jurassic world is to fix a broken Jeep when there is no previous
Indication that they could possibly do so you only fixed up his old Malibu, right?
Yeah, that's a throwaway line designed to explain an ability that has a significant effect on the plot because average children are not typically
Expected to know how to repair a Jeep that's been out of commission for more than 20 years
They could have alluded to this in the opening of the film
The father could have celebrated his son's performance in personal driving lessons and repairs as they were preparing to leave
that kind of parental appreciation could have been brought on as a subtle farewell to the typical family activities that are soon to be
Interrupted as a result of the impending divorce shown in that film, but we got this instead
Probably because it was seen as a small problem in this
rip that a throwaway line can fix but it was based on almost nothing we knew well then what about when you've introduced all of
the important super-powered characters in your story
But there's one you forgot and the plot is moving along without you. You're gonna have to explain her abilities, right?
Her sword traps the souls of its victims she cut all you in half with one sword stroke just like Maul on the lawn
She's got my back. This is so awful
it's been memed into history and it's likely due to forgetting to give this character a triple intro like the rest of those in the
film instead
They opted to introduce her right before everyone leaves to begin the second act
If you can call it that the natural
implication being that she was forgotten up to that point in the script and so based on nothing we get an info dump in the
Form of a few throwaway lines for someone who is very important to this team just awful
But then again, we are talking about Suicide Squad
Well, then what about a film that's considered a masterpiece by many a
Murder attempt that failed because a gun happened to Jam. How do you explain that kind of luck?
Carbon-fibre 28 caliber main china if you want to kill a public servant. Mr
Maroni I recommend you buy American buy American the gun is Chinese made carbon fiber therefore unreliable and
Therefore jammed and that doesn't even come close to
Explaining how he got a carbon fiber pistol into the prison system and then through the modern detectors and a pat-down for the court room
Throwaway lines like these can be rather frustrating because we know by listening to them that the creators have written themselves
Into a corner a corner that they nevertheless want to get past in order to get their payoff
So they threw a line into the script to try and smooth out the progression of events to allow the payoff to proceed
They are often used to explain immediately adjacent events in the script
Typically writers will establish setups through many mechanics in the script leading to payoffs that come far later
The audience will have the time and knowledge to understand the event while remaining engaged by the payoff instead of being distracted by it
Why can John Connor hack into the security system near the end of Terminator 2?
Allowing them to access the key that opens the security door that gives them a chance to destroy the arm and the chip that would
Have led to Judgment Day
Well, he's shown to be a delinquent who's broken into security systems to steal money for a decent amount of time
This is a result of being raised by a mother whose perspective is that survival at any cost is all that matters
John will save the world which is a position. That is thoroughly informed by the prior film
How about another example, why was Mike able to record and expose? Mr. Waternoose his nefarious scheme in monsters Inc
Well waternoose was drawn into the room that was established for training simulations that record playback of good and bad
quality scaring tactics to help monsters learn how to improve
All right
then why was taken able to take back his daughter by taking out the takers who decided to take her because they
regularly take foreign visitors in taken
well
it was established that he was a retired Wetwork CIA agent with decades of
Experience and he still indulges in a part-time job
that calls for these abilities add that to friends who are remnants of that history capable of assisting him and you get every piece of
Information you need to engage with the whole script the problem
That should become obvious with these comparisons is not only how much more flesh is placed on the setups
But the proximity to their purpose in the script if you place specific exposition that enables an event to occur despite being almost
Impossible moments before or after that event occurs, then you haven't repaired the script
Like I said previously you simply kicked the can down the road
Despite that throwaway lines will be used to solve potentially devastating
Events like a character dying or being hopelessly lost or not being given any screen time at all
Or they could be used to generate drama where none exists
the reason I said
I don't understand lines like these is because they are built to strengthen the script when in reality they highlight
Weaknesses that need to be corrected from the ground up its incompetence or just some bad luck in production
But the result is the same which leads me to understand that many of you may be asking what a good throwaway line would be
Well, the idea is the same as my made at lines for the force awakens
The lines are meant to strengthen connections that already exist to change
contrivances into cause and effect this
Ultimately confirms elements that were only thin and previously inferred by the audience
for example
What if in your story you have a group of people who are trying to get to a jet and another group of people who?
Must capture those who are running leading to a big battle. How do we connect up these two teams at just the right time?
Well on the chasing team, we have several resources for general surveillance
But they are mostly out because of the awareness of those elements from the running team
This leaves us with the fact that the protagonist is having a love interest
Deliver his gear ready for the ride on the jet that will take them to the fight
They're looking for that means this character will be able to lead anyone to the running team
So do we have anyone on the chasing team that shows interest in capsule of life?
Lilian
Lip piercing, right? Yeah, she's cute. Yeah, okay, but do they work for the same person would they even be aware of each other?
Uh-huh. Well, this person would have to be experienced in espionage. You mean agent Romanoff. I
Was tasked to you by director fury, but even then the chasing team would still have to evacuate the entire
Airport and they'd have to start doing it after the running team arrived or they'll be tipped off too early
Well sure evacuate the entire airport as soon as the running team arrived, but start with the hangar bay
It shouldn't take much longer than a few minutes
And that's about as much as cap will need to get his team suited up
Leaving no time for the running team to escape fire the airport nor to escape in general
Forcing a showdown we can show this with a throwaway line about the evacuation and a confirmation that they have to fight their way out
Stark
suna
what's clever about that moment is that Bucky was the one to translate the German announcement for the
Evacuation that makes a lot of sense since he's a Winter Soldier and they speak thirty languages
Not the only one or soldier they speak thirty languages can hide in plain sight
Infiltrate assassinate destabilized. So with all those pieces set up for the audience in less than overt ways
All we need now is a line to let people know about the connection in case they missed it
So, how do we do that?
well
We can put in a throwaway line at the end of the relevant scene with a cut to the person being referenced in the dialogue
You know where they are. I?
know someone who does
And
There we have it the through-line was present but now it's highlighted through some small yet important lines
But is it the kind of writing that can be picked up by all?
Audiences like Captain America's in the airport parking garage assembling his crew together so they can fight the bad guy without government
Interference and somehow Iron Man finds him there and evacuates the entire airport within like a minute
It's not picked up every time but when we give a script a more thorough analysis
We can appreciate the craft regardless incidentally. You should all watch YMS his video on Kimba the White Lion
It's an incredibly detailed video exploring the claims of plagiarism in relation to the Lion King
He goes through a huge amount of context be it the movies and shows tied to the content in question throughout the years
Interviews production details TED talks and just about everything in between with the goal of discovering. Just what was copied
What was lied about and what was missed and how there could be any other explanations for patterns?
People are spotting
considering I was one of the many people who didn't know much of anything about
Kimber while happily agreeing to the idea that Disney may have taken much of what we ended up enjoying about the Lion King
From it. It was very informative entertaining and eye-opening you all right?
I
Think it's one of the best videos YMS has ever made and you should check it out link in the description
Anyway, all of this stuff is essentially me explaining why I love throwaway lines
They are a fantastic writing tool though oftentimes
They are used in competently and with that out of the way
let's move on in an attempt to trap both gangs ray pulls some fuses and the rafters are
Accidentally released these things are essentially giant balls of organic creature meat with an enormous mouth complete with snappy
tentacles that pull people in to eat during the slapstick adventure harm punches a random guy to then throw him into the rathtar mouth which
Is fine, but I can't help seeing the cuts they make for this movement
I reckon it would have looked really good if it was all in one having the action ground the CGI monster into the scene a
Bit more but we do the whole cut cut cut thing
Either way Harrison was clearly very concerned with the project looking good in completion
considering how much he loves the character of Han Solo and how much investment he's shown for the solo movie as far as the
movie featuring a young Han Solo I
I
Don't know what to think about that
Are you looking forward to watching a han Solo movie as a fan
Rey and Finn
during their escape attempt bump into a rathtar and panic finn is swept up by the creature and rey opens her mouth far wider than
Usual to display concern she then runs after the raft r2 trying
Well, I don't know what her plan is here to be perfectly honest. She doesn't have a weapon
She would likely have been swept up with Finn considering the number of tentacles on this thing
But of course it chooses not to and gets out of her ability to chase it
Fortunately for Finn Rey finds a control panel and she's able to operate the emergency
Blast doors shutting one down as the rathtar carries finn across it freeing him
When she does save Finn's life here she takes none of the credit and it's just that sweet thing of
We're back together. Again. Rey is so good. She is saving lives while refusing the chance to be appreciated for it
Why couldn't you have Rey swept up by the rathtar here and have Finn use a console to save her?
Why does Rey have to be the hero in each of these scenes rather than making it a team effort later in the script?
She rescues herself. Also, why do you need this ridiculous spectacle?
That's actively making me question so much about the characters
The storytelling is so clear and I'm surprised how emotional I guess it was JJ didn't sacrifice a character for spectacle in any way
I'd also like to highlight that Finn was not killed by the rathtar
Immediately like the others have been how lucky the less plot armor
We see the better but sometimes even Star Wars does break that stereotype and it's quite refreshing
This leads to Han then picking up the bow caster and shooting the remaining mercenaries that
Reaction seems a little unlikely considering how long these two have been together
But we can talk about that a little later
Rey informs Harn about his own ship again and tells him he needs a co-pilot which is
Interesting considering that she's so readily piloted alone mere minutes ago han makes yet another mistake
And Rey has to clear it up for him so that they can begin their jump to hyperspace. But this is natural
Everybody makes mistakes. For instance when Rey released the raft ours. It is framed as a mistake. She hit the wrong fuses
Wrong fuses except Ray's mistake
Results in every character on her team making it out alive and many of the enemies being swallowed up her mistake facilitated their success
Something to keep in mind han engages the hyperdrive and travels through part way of the hangar doors and part of a raft
are he chose to do this instead of flying out of the hangar first because it was very much a
Cinematic spectacle to behold, but that caused a discrepancy of both Universal mechanics and character
I never asked that question till after I've done it relations fly, right?
Something that will be discussed once we approach the only other scene that presents rules in relation to hyperdrive
Inform the first thought that the Han Solo has the Droid they wanted and it's aboard the Millennium Falcon
One of the two factions makes a call to ensure the first order knows where the droid is and who has it though
We don't see him again
but we do see this method of providing information once before and then again and again
This can be quite boring for an audience member these pieces of connecting tissue in the script are not brought on by something
Dynamic that relates to an environment or a character rather. They were spotted and reported on it's not that it doesn't make sense
It's simply less satisfying for many people
You could have had stormtroopers be the ones that boarded Hans ship in the first place
They could have been led by Captain phasma, and she could have had a history with han
I understand that I am now advocating for the destruction of my previous repairs
But they were always contingent that nothing else really changed which is not an option when it comes to repairing this story
I will be speaking on this topic more and more as we progress
But Han Solo in mere minutes has taken quite the beating in terms of character consistency
He can't even remember who he owes money and who he's failed to pay in the past
But I'm sure the writers were hoping for that little bit to make you giggle the idea that it's okay for a major blight to
Be placed on a character or group of enemies permanently as long as it had you laughing
I spent that Han says that he hasn't got their money because he spent it hunting rathtars
But if he's using that as an excuse, then surely that means they are the people he's getting the wrath tolls for for example
If my landlord asked me for my rent and I said getting groceries is expensive
Why would I expect the landlord to care unless of course I was buying them on the landlord's request specifically comparatively
Why would these factions care whether it's costly to capture raft ours unless they were the people he was capturing them for in which case
Surely capturing three of them would be proof that he is not only doing the job that they hired him for
but that he can actually
Provide at least some of the payment but the scene is strange because harm makes it clear that the rathtar czar for someone else
So, who knows what's going on though before we close out on this scene
I would like to highlight the
dialogue or at least part of it Han being the sort that can talk his way out of anything is dealing with mental masters and
He is of course defeated as we lose focus on the particular back and forth of the scene. You hear quite the exchange
Sublime anyway coming back to this guy
the only reason we saw him share this information so bluntly is to set up the following scene the
Introduction of a character that is going to be the focal point for every significant change since the original trilogy
But there's no reason for the hair I there is I think that it it speaks to who she is
You know, not directly but it is very fitting her entire. Look is very fitting
Introducing supreme leader snoke
Shrouded in mystery sat upon a throne from which he commands. The first order Snoke is
Apparently the being that brought the first order to their current position while smacking down Luke and the New Jedi Order
Whatever that was this sort of thing can work just fine depending on how its supported which of course we will get to one day
Kylo Hux and Snoke are discussing strategy
Now that the heroes have escaped and it's made clear that they got away as a result of Huck's failing to capture the Droid
The Droid will soon be delivered to the resistance
Leading them to the last Jedi I take full responsibility
Personally I think sending two stormtroopers and two fighters was more to blame for the escape not to mention losing the escapees for no reason
Both when they crash landed and when they left the planet, but there we are
it's very odd that Hux takes the blame here when kylo clearly has power over the first order to send out units to as I
Said previously kylo was placed on the character shelf only to be let free again later
We already know that he would be in
Personal pursuit of the Droid with how much investment he has in the map and yet here he is
Sat in some rooms staring at a wall of lights
I want that map for your sake I should just to get it he seems to be aware of the situation
Meaning he was fine with sending such a small number of troopers for this job
But the distance he takes from this mission makes him free of blame because he also complains about Huck's his abilities
It's just so confusing to put together but I suppose it does lend credence to those who say Huck's was always incompetent
When looking at Huck's as it stands
We are seeing a confident yet relatively arrogant general singular in his goals
The only time he shows significant concern is when the planet he is standing on is about to explode when up against
Kylo & Snoke. He stands up for himself
He holds his own but the choice to send such a tiny force to retrieve the Droid doesn't make sense
If anything you would expect Huck's to overcompensate
He would likely send an army to pick up a map
like he and kylo did in the beginning unless that opening was exclusively organized by kylo, you know, he spearheaded the mission and
Overcompensated only to now leave it to Huck's even though they do seem to share command in this film
But who knows how that'll look in the future?
Staying on Huck's though his disposition and failures in the last Jedi
translate as though they are a retcon of his character precisely because he's
Contradicting what we know about him choosing to target an uninhabited base rich with documents for the taking rather than a closer
mobile base that contains the vast
Majority of the living resistance, or how about choosing to engage in a slow chase when many other options are available?
Apparently he also understands hyperdrive ramming, but doesn't see it coming until it's far too late
And so on top of that he has all of his ideas thrown into the dirt because he's so pathetic
And it's now played for laughs
This is the only decision that comes close to failure in the force awakens
And I don't think one could define it that way with the very strange information that we're provided
So to explain the choices made by Huck's in the last Jedi
We have to staple a trait of utter incompetence onto him to prevent our own cognitive dissonance
Does that sound familiar either that or they make him a traitor to the first order anything could happen though to bolster my point?
let's go on a tangent and
cross-reference with a scene from the last Jedi
When discussing holder's decisions throughout the film she refuses to tell Poe the plan because she believes him reckless and the plan could be
Endangered if he was to know it. This is not a completed line of logic from hold o to the audience
This is why many assumed she was a villain or a mole before the subversion takes place
There is no clear concern from her about what Poe would do with the knowledge of the plan
They were no reason to assume PO would tell the first-order despite
Of course the information slipping out thanks to fin meaning this isn't a decision from necessity rather
It is a petty concern
She harbors as a result of a judgmental view of Poe Dameron a view that is later shown to be irrelevant
Compared to other feelings she has for him. I like him
Thank you
But it's worse even than that because he ends up asking not for the details
but that there is a plan at all that there is hope and
She still refuses to say anything other than a platitude
She would rather have people believe that the several deaths up to that point are part of the plan
This leaves her crew despondent and frustrated leading to a mutiny with more members than just Poe
It also leaves the audience confused as to whether she just doesn't like Poe
Excessively or any of the crew for that matter or she's just straight up evil, which is once again
contradictive writing that enables the subplot and the final act
But even if we ignore that Poe ops to save the resistance
engaging in a plan
He then tells he'll do about thinking it was just what she would want only she reacts with outrage
Hoping to put a stop to his plan which naturally pushes Poe to make a decision that will save everyone's lives
He conducts a mutiny with his fellow resistance members and this is where we have to pause to have this interaction
understood by everyone for how poorly written it was and how horrific Lee written it gets in this scene whole doe knows that using the
Hyperdrive would mean putting everyone in the resistance in a guaranteed grave. So let's play it out
They speed off with no base to securely reach
The first order is going to speed right after them with the tracker and this time they will have no fuel
leading to their own little
There is nothing worse than that
Outcome having one person in an escape pod while that happens would be a preferable plan
So something has to be done Holder recognizes that through Poe's decision to take over the ship and take control of the command center
He will push the lever to enter hyperspace and Dam them all to death and he gets
Extremely close to doing so this means that during the mutiny scene Hall doe had a choice
She didn't have a good choice
but she had a choice tell Poe the plan now and save everyone's lives even at the risk of the plan leaking through Poe to
Someone at some point or stay silent and everyone dies even at the risk of Poe being a mole
He will tell the first order her plan. Sure
But that would result in a fight on crate as opposed to the immediate obliteration of the resistance
Which do you think is the better choice besides there's no mention of her believing. He's a mole in the film
in fact
It's quite the opposite but the narrative and the framing is screaming at us that she's right to keep the plan from him
Despite all logic pointing the other way and so people defend it at all costs
Hold on not telling poha planned you like do you genuinely think that that's like fine?
Yeah, yeah
So is would your reasoning be because she doesn't trust him
Yep, so why doesn't she tell anyone else?
We don't know who she tells
Okay. All right. Why doesn't she tell him the plan once he knows that the transports are being fueled what difference would it make?
Hmm
The idea of something being framed to make sense and to be righteous despite everything in the narrative pointing
The other way is a whole subject on its own and for some reason Disney Star Wars has it in spades?
How about a reverse example where something is framed to be bad?
despite being the best choice they had in the beginning of the last Jedi Poe made the right choice and yet he is punished by
a demotion and a slap
Framing alone the way the narrative presents that decision being condemned is enough for people to simply believe it was a bad decision
Despite the reality of the situation
Was reckless the thing that got him slapped by Leia
What was that that he did that get him slept by maybe not the drink Jordan table. He saved these entire fleet yet
So the film is telling us those things can destroy the raddest at very large range
Meaning that if the Dreadnought had come with them when they did the ambush then
Destroyed why would Leia called in the bag? She's just an idiot
This is the thing
so you said that Leia slapped him and
By virtue of Leia slapping him you believe that he's done something reckless as opposed to Leia being wrong
It's more so about considering the events yourself the variables
The choice is made by which characters with what information and concluding what made sense with strong
references instead of simply believing it made sense because the story told you it does there is however a common
Counter-argument that is highlighted during these sorts of discussions
Just because you wouldn't make that decision doesn't mean the character wouldn't have the irony being that a writer told them that this
Character would make this decision and they bought it for that reason alone
They treat the story as law whether or not it provides contradictive information to the viewer many
Apologists have now taken up
The defense that this decision was indeed faulty on holder's part
But that she was established that way and thus it plays out consistently in terms of character
Think about that for a moment
Instead of accepting that this is a poor choice from the writers to push the drama
they are resolved to justify the
Nonsensical writing by arguing that a character that is in charge of the entire resistance
Force has the same level of intelligence as Homer Simpson
Wine-making course and I forgot how to drive. So why is this relevant?
Well now we also have Huck's being established as a cold and efficient general in the first movie
But he's made into a clown by the second and the justification is fast becoming that of he's stupid
He was always stupid
there's an episode of The Simpsons called tis the fifteenth season where Homer has promised to buy his family a Christmas tree with my
He recently came in to while they buy gifts for each other
However, Homer discovers a talking astrolabe with several technological abilities impressing him immediately
They're essentially useless features to both he and his family, but he ends up buying it regardless
This is our finest talking astrolabe. It also comes with a notepad and pen that works upside down
He justifies it as a choice the family could benefit from and only later
Realizes how selfish it was and attempts to make up for it in the rest of the episode
Now does it make sense that Homer would purchase that?
Astrolabe after a Salesman spends a few seconds explaining its benefits Homer Simpson is one of the iconic
Representations for stupidity it is the foundation of his character
He's not a general of the largest force ever seen in the universe nor. Is he an admiral?
He is youraveragejoe
But far stupider and he will make choices that do not benefit himself or his loved ones if he's convinced of its value
Thanks to his lack of critical thinking and so the equivalent with Homer would be to have him show
Relatively high intelligence in the moments that facilitate a dramatic plot though. His moments of intelligence are usually played for a joke
Trying to convince your audience that there is strong writing because a character makes a blatant mistake by design when they've been
Contradictive Lee shown to be rather intelligent will cause cognitive dissonance in your viewer if you need someone to make stupid decisions
Then use a character that's been established that way
If you need someone to make intelligent decisions then use a character that's been established
That way we would be honored if you would join us in conclusion Admiral hold
Oh and general Hux are not Homer Simpson
I'm glad we discussed that moving on
Snoke then says that Luke Skywalker
Will give rise to additional Jedi and that is why they must find the droid before it ends up in the hands of the resistance
that way they can get to Luke first and kill him hugs then recommends destroying the rebellion with their new weapon to cripple the
Resistance and prevent them from ultimately reaching Skywalker Snoke agrees and that Lee me utterly bewildered
Person, we've never met once to find and kill another person
We haven't seen for decades and plans to knock out the Galactic government to do so, okay
Why because he might train Jedi? It's not like it's an instant process. What?
Well, it's not supposed to be but well
But you know what right there is just proof that you don't need Luke to create an army of Jedi
anyway
It seems to me that Snoke is only after Luke because of how much the audience knows and loves Luke on a meta level
This lets the writers skip over establishment and invent a high-stakes situation on name recognition alone
There are no Jedi aside from Luke and we know that he's isolated himself to an island that he intends to die on
So what threat is Luke at this point, especially when he's nowhere near the good guys all the bad guys
What interactions did the first-order and Luke Skywalker even have?
Considering that Finn has barely any clue who the heroes of thirty years ago are outside of recognizing Han as a rebellion general
And he was raised in the first order. Well, either way apparently Luke will begin training new Jedi the moment
He's back and Jedi are all that stand in the way of Snoke despite his awesome power
but like why wouldn't smoke
Understand why Luke left when kylo was Luke's student and he is now loyal to Snoke
Surely Snoke knows that Luke wants nothing to do with this world anymore
but even with the rise of Skywalker
We don't know this stuff. Who is Luke - Snoke who is Snoke - the Jedi it would be
Unreasonable to expect answers to these questions
So soon after the first scene with Snoke but bafflingly
They aren't even close to being answered two movies later regardless Snoke decides that Hux is right and they must prevent Luke from being contacted
meaning that in this scene
they are talking about the erasure of the galactic government its military and the malicious style armies of the
Organization that operate outside of but not in opposition of said government solely to prevent them from finding Luke Skywalker
This is being explained by the writers because it justifies the need to destroy the Republic
Now rather than any of the other years prior to the events of this film
The first order really doesn't need a reason beyond domination want to rule as the newly reformed Empire?
So why make this about Luke you could simply say that the weapon has been completed in the last few hours and therefore we can
enact our evil plans and destroy
The other faction Huck says that he believes now is the time to use the weapon to destroy the Republic
Thus cutting off support to the resistance. Thus preventing the resistance from reaching Skywalker
I don't know if you noticed but the target list is completely backwards in terms of justification instead of stopping
Skywalker's discovery by going for the Republic
They should be outwardly targeting the Republic first considering they're threatening power and influence
Then the lesser faction known as the resistance
considering the power that rebellions can have and
Finally, they should swat Skywalker down in case he returns or trains New Jedi to fight them
The reason this is backwards is twofold the writers are concerned about recognition from the audience while also looking to have a few planets
Explode in a justified manner in this story having the plot be focused on destroying the Republic which makes the most sense
will give them their explosion but most of the audience will be wondering what even is the Republic is it like the
Resistance, what would it mean for them to be gone?
And so the end goal for both factions is reaching Luke Skywalker making the plot very easy to follow Luke Skywalker
Luke
Luke Luke Skywalker Luke Luke is a Jedi Luke
Luke Scott pastor Luke deck master Luke
falou quickly
They needed a Luke Skywalker type goal to return to in key moments of the film to remain on track
full-on battles and the destruction of planets are simply neat spectacles along the way die-hard Star Wars fans will be especially
Confused since the Republic should be spread as such that a single system being destroyed shouldn't even be able to cripple them
Not that we can know any of this since the state of the world has been avoided by the story thus far
Honestly, the structure of this scene is completely bizarre
But it's done so fast and in an evil baddie
Scheming sort of way that it mostly escapes scrutiny and we accept the goals of the bad guys almost entirely
Snoke says there's been an awakening in the force and that the droid is currently with kylos father
han Solo on the Millennium Falcon
And he couldn't have read that line for the audience more. Deliberately. The Droid we seek is aboard the Millennium Falcon
in the hands of your father
Sure
Kylo obviously knows that han is his father
The people who don't would be us
Because that connection alone will facilitate the biggest payoff in this movie
This kind of information could be understood subtly before being overton later scenes through dialogue that shares
Alternative information or even a flashback but they decided that we absolutely needed to understand this information
Now in addition there is an allusion to Sith training in this scene
It would have been interesting to explore that since no mainline Star Wars Episode has gone into any depth about it
But what are you gonna do a more interesting?
Detail is that once Hux has offered his plan to Snoke and it's accepted
He gives kylo quite the look as if to say he favors my ideas this again adds to their conflict a conflict
That would have benefited from development yet is dropped in favor of the boss Lackey dynamic in the sequel
We then cut back to the Millennium Falcon
The ship is in dire need of hyperdrive maintenance and yet it is capable of flying through hyperspace though
There is an alert going on in the background that can apparently be quelled by ripping something out of the ship itself
Something ray refers to as a bypass, which is laughable
But the more contentious issue would be that Han is bewildered by the repairs of his own ship regardless
The drama is solved and everyone is safe
so let's talk about what was probably
intended with this scene
See everybody references this moment for the purposes of proving Rey's character writing to be extremely flawed and it's evidence of her
Consistent acting style those criticisms are staggeringly accurate
However, if we ignore that subject for a moment, I want to explore an idea about writing and more specifically
characterization put it on the screen
So they know the story was going for something important when these two met and that is that Han is impressive to Rey
She knows about his
achievements about his
Legendary status and possibly respects him more for his smuggling than his time as a general being that there is potential camaraderie in her time
As a scavenger, I imagine both jobs are quite tough and relatively thankless
She even cites his Kessel run achievement as though she is a die-hard fan of his piloting
She then spends the time she has with him keeping up and trying to prove herself often getting ahead
Rey is trying to impress what may very well be a hero to her
And so when he's in a position where his ship is falling apart?
You could say that Han is actually panicked and she fixes it doing something that she knows
He didn't think of and what is her potential hero's reaction. I bypassed the compressor
Rey has something of value to offer hon, and he's impressed but he's not sure he likes it
I think the point here is that Rey isn't getting the validation
She wants from harm despite earning it and that she is bonding to him rather quickly due to her desire for a parental figure
From what we've seen there is room to infer that Rey might have wanted
Appreciation from her parents for what she's achieved while they've been gone as if to prove why they never should have left her you could
say that potential is being applied to a
Stranger that she's quickly turning into a father figure thanks to his history likely acting as a story of hope in her
unremarkable life this could be
Brilliant if it were developed if it were delivered over more time with more care
But there is only one
conclusion to reach when judging this as a package Rey's
Attachment to Han here and in the future is hollow and if we reverse-engineer it we know that the writers rushed it for this payoff
Right here
It should go without saying but when you want to create a hard-hitting intellectually satisfying
Emotional payoff you need to build toward it first
You need these people to meet to understand each other to learn from one another to trust and rely on each other
All leading to that last goodbye. I know why you cry
In the force awakens a large amount of screen time is spent on the more dazzling side of storytelling the running the battle is the
Explosions and death providing the audience that blast of shock and awe
Unfortunately, this leaves those character elements very little time to become layered or detailed
I will go into a bit more depth for Han and Rey later though
There is a pattern to spot right now
And this is one of the more blatant examples of it in
Order to make this scene hit the heartstrings in the audience
They needed to get Rey and Han connected on a personal level and they needed to do it fast
And so Rey outperforms Harn at his primary skill later
He provides her
validation for that despite being a reserved person by Nature and if you tie that to raise parental issues, we've accomplished the development in about
One minute. You may think that was mostly scathing, but they did come up with some potential
They're a pathway for these two characters to develop a relationship
but the idea can only go so far without additional development without
Desperately desired time to flourish not to mention the requirement of crippling Hans character
So in exchange for a piece of development that will support a later event
What had to happen Rey completed fundamental maintenance on the Millennium Falcon to prevent its destruction in such a way that Han Solo
Didn't understand it meaning that the writers as a byproduct of a different writing goal. Just provided Rey yet another achievement
I've been alluding to this in certain sections of this series already
But this scene is an excellent example of a pattern Rey has been stacking
Attributes as a result of her having to push the story forward or she ends up developing
Character interactions and by extension it provides her another ability
But her believability suffers every time this happens for every exceptional talent that is added to her repertoire
She becomes less and less human. I'm not convinced that Rey was made superhuman by design at first
anyway
I think it's a byproduct of other decisions and they decided to run with it
Evidenced by the fact that she is at her weakest when we meet her and there is an implication that she has a tough journey
Ahead only from there his power level starts to climb in leaps and bounds
There may have been a goal to keep her limited with a payoff at the end in terms of strength
but the writers have been depositing abilities into Rey when dealing with other writing goals as a result we have what is essentially an
unstoppably powerful character in relation to this world
especially by the end this kind of mistake is understood as common for many new writers when funneling themselves into their work through a
Character they make a creature that is personable caring intelligent
Impressive useful proactive and loved by many whether reasoned or not. These are
preferable qualities and when you combine them with a character that doesn't have any kind of lasting or
significant failure or flaw in addition to excelling in many situations that require specific
Abilities you get what is commonly referred to as a Mary Sue as I am sure many of you have heard already
Am I saying that JJ and Lawrence were trying to pour themselves into ray? I have no idea
I'm not inside their heads
But I would say that there's plenty of evidence to assume something a little bit different ray seems to be a wish fulfillment
character she's not
Necessarily what JJ wants to be she seems to be what the audience would want to be if they were in this universe
Especially when looking back on the entire trilogy. She is personally trained by layer
she helps get Luke back onto his hero track not to mention adopting the Skywalker name and last but not
Necessarily least she's impressive to Han Solo. So let's focus on that one
she has provided the attribute of Highly Effective Millennium Falcon mechanic in order to set up this relationship with Han that will result in a
Significant payoff. This is something we can break down further once we have more examples for now
Let's shift to the character as a whole ray is exiting the introductory stage of the story in prep for the latter portions
But she has nothing in terms of limits or mistakes to keep in mind the coming payoffs will only provide her character even more power
Making less and less sense to make this easier to understand we can compare her with the deuteragonist of the story Finn. Yeah
It's like secondary to the protagonist, but still kind of a protagonist as well
Put it on the screen so that anyway at this point in the film
We received quite a few of rays attributes whether they make sense or not
She's been scavenging alone in effective ways for a very long time despite the harsh and dangerous environment
She's been rescuing others despite. The very real risks. She's been protecting said others even when offered a strong trade
She has quite a formidable talent in combat despite her build and lack of teacher. She is resourceful and calm under pressure
She is an extremely talented Millennium Falcon pilot despite her own claims and having never flown it previously
She's multilingual despite the severe lack of practicality for wookie as a language on jakku
She shows an intelligent use of the tools at her disposal
She shows an intimate knowledge of the Falcons functionality despite never having flown it
She has an awareness of the precautions and fixes taken for coolant leaks fuel pumps and ignition compressors topping it off with a vicious
Tearing of a component that apparently saves the day all to the surprise and lack of understanding of Han Solo
the longtime owner of the ship itself
We're going to explore the origin behind these traits when we passed the plot in a few years
But I must point out that this cavalcade is after a mere
52 minutes of the film of which Rey appears in a fraction of Rey is downright
impressive in each scene as time goes on as a result an audience can wonder what her purpose or message as a character is
Perhaps she is proof that you can be incredible without learning a thing. You can have massive untapped
Talent while also being extremely kind intelligent and heroic. Well, we'll get to that aspect in a sec for now
Let's jump to Finn. Finn has shown us his very own attributes
He cannot stand meaningless death, but he's smart enough to try and hide it
He can't stand innocence being tortured and thus saves a prisoner. Unfortunately, he doesn't manage to stay under the radar
He pulls off the rescue successfully until he gets distracted and it causes the ship to be shot down
He desperately flees to a local village and struggles to stay alive, though
He does just manage to pull it off by finding a less than preferable water reserve upon being hunted down
He takes a strong hook to the face and is interrogated he manages to lie, successfully and attempts to take control of the situation
He then happily synergizes with a local and uses his brief knowledge to escape the situation
He's in leading to him trying to evade a selection of living meatballs and almost dying yet again all the while still maintaining some dignity
Intelligence and a decisive nature despite falling over consistently and generally looking like a bit of a fool most of the time he is
Decent with a blaster courageous at times if not confusing and ultimately very flawed. This is simplistic yet
It has so much more nuance and potential than Rey
It isn't to say it's as simple as having adversity or choices
You can have character writing go wrong for so many reasons
You could inadvertently 180 your character and their traits without progression in order to serve your story a higher purpose ultimately
Assassinating the character in favor of your own ideals whether or not they had choices to make or adversity to overcome
Another would be having a character actively learn lessons about something specific that does not correlate with an important choice later in the story
This is arcing their character without an informing setup betraying cause and effect despite there being a choice and adversity to overcome
How about having characters portrayed as one thing despite all of the evidence?
pointing to another this can disjoint the assessment and audience would make a
conflict of what the story is showing and what the story is saying this brings us to a
Nonsensical reality whether a choice or adversity is present or not
these are just standard broad issues but a long character story with plenty of
Development payoffs and details is why most of us love watching this stuff. We love watching the journey
You can connect to these people as if they were real or at the very least
Respect who they are and how they got there when you look back at the journey of layered developed yet
Consistent characters in fiction you will cling to or at the very least reference a lot of their major
Moments times they had to make tough decisions and times where they show a side to themselves. We could only have previously inferred
Crazy pepper, I
Just finally know
what I have to do I
Know in my heart that it's right
I
Wanted to carry you into the sea and let the waves wash you away
Instead I let you live
Because you're a Lannister
I've been instructed by my government to come to you and ask for it
Sanctuary
The magics you channeled are more ferocious and primal than anything could hope to understand and you are lucky to be alive you rank
arrogant amateur
You're right I'm very powerful and maybe it's not such a good idea for you to piss me off
Many great characters have many of these payoffs
but the moments been very little without the journey that brought them there the development that builds a stage for these payoffs to be
intellectually satisfying and emotionally
Devastating you could highlight each of these moments in a timeline and plot out where the character started where they progressed and where they plateaued
As something else it gets you that much closer to seeing them as real since this is the same process one would use to assess
Relationships in real life when defining a person. We look to their choices
Imagine a friend or partner who shares your interests while also being extremely unreliable
And/or toxic a person who is kind when they are in a good mood
But cruel when they are not irrelevant of your involvement and on the flip side
You could have someone incredible after thinking about all of the choices
They've made in your interest before their own showing you love and care where they don't strictly
Benefit from it or putting themselves out of comfort to achieve something you wanted
It is likely that everyone has met at least one of these people in their lives and in whichever case you can look back at
all of the choices they've made to create a pattern you can assess the moments that define them as a
Character to you this same process is often utilized to judge how consistent characters are their personal continuity is key
minor changes when suitable and major changes only when sufficiently informed but all of it requires
reference to the past to become something more meaningful to a person than simple fiction connecting to an intense degree on a
Personal level can be an indicator that consistent writing is present the accuracy to real-life people real-life journeys and real-life
Emotions and ultimately raise character doesn't reflect real people very well
The fact is that many refer to fiction as a window into another living world where watch stories play out
but that's often inefficient as a description because it implies a distinct line between what is being portrayed and what we
Experience they are definitively separated in that metaphor
Therefore others find storytelling is more of a reflection of our own world a mirror
Giving us an opportunity to learn and connect to the fictional events espousing lessons about humanity that both plague and grace our very own
Very real lives as a bonus
we get to see incredible worlds or creative scenarios tailored to entertain but when the
Foundation is broken in the fiction when the characters and the world failed to meet the quality of writing required to recreate the life
We've all come to experience it can be a major problem
As I said when moving away from a broad sense who does ray reflect
She's far too unrealistic in skill luck and behavior considering her history. She's like a ghost in the mirror
There's no flesh to her history. Could you honestly predict how ray would react to real-life situations?
This is something I've covered in more depth in the last Jedi critique
but Ray being so void of substance means we can't even imagine how she would approach scenarios other characters have
motivations floors blind spots biases and intentions
This means we can expect them to perform in favor of those things when going through a scenario
But Ray is lacking any such detail a bland
environmental plot or lack thereof can often reveal how hollow a character is because they have nothing to react to or
pursue this leaves the character to rely on what defines them which in ray's case is
Nothing a fair test for this is the idea of bottle episodes in television. Where you smash together well-established
Characters because their identities bouncing off each other is enough to carry you through the time code in terms of entertainment
Every topic that is presented and every scenario that is dealt with gets a unique spin from each of the characters since they all want
And need many different things as people do exactly what kind of contaminant are we dealing with here?
What do you mean
fly house we say
I mean
I'm thinking like a like a turbo Lalique or something. Ebola just sees on the Discovery Channel where all your intestines sorta
Just slip right out of your butt. Thank you. I know what it bolli know
So if I took it it's larceny, but if you find it under mother, hen, it's a mistake mother Hannah
I think we about the same age sure. Unless time is linear
You're gonna eat me poor yeah, right
Oh
Kinda lonely. Does anyone here recognize anyone? I'm the guy that's gonna be kicking a whole mess of ass
Somebody don't tell me what's going on. What did they call you for short? I am from the Watchers Academy in southern Hampshire
In fact, I happen to be a head boy
Gee, I wonder how you're in that nickname a lot of effort
I don't mind saying I hate battle episodes there wall to wall facial expression and emotional nuance imagine
I'll sit in the corner with a bucket on my head. Can you even picture these scenarios with Ray?
She would have to spend them explaining her wants her needs and her general goals from life because we require that
information to have any kind of through-line on how she approaches
situations from there on you can bet she'll be nice to people and she'll want to go home most of the time but other than
That you can't bottle her alongside of the characters because she's not a character
She's much more akin to a sentient prop. Of course. That doesn't mean you can't like her
she genuinely seems like a nice person which is enough to warrant a smile when she's on screen but connecting with her on a
personal level is very difficult, especially with each of her successes piling on so
How about Finn? Well, we're going to criticize Finn's consistency in the future
But for now, let's focus on the surface level Finn has already made many decisions that reveal his sense of morality
however
Strange it may be he is relatively easy going and he's looking to start a happy calm life at any opportunity
Due to the life he came from he's more interested in getting along with people even if that means lying though
He won't deceive people to the point that they could get hurt about who you think I have been what are you talking about?
not resistance
I'm not a hero
Finn is relatively agile heroic and brave if not a little reckless and clumsy
I could see him being a real person having an everyday life on earth and I don't even think he's particularly well-written
So why doesn't Rey work the same way? Well, it comes down to a few simple questions
Starting them all with you here
We don't know why Rey is here
We don't know what she values what kind of history she may have had and we don't know whether or not it has a toll
On the personality we see now despite spending potential decades alone on this desert
It actually reminds me of a completely different character from a completely different
Medium look without these fundamentals. The audience is downright waiting waiting for those pieces of information so they can begin liking or disliking
Rey as a decision, this is why many viewers say they feel nothing about Rey
It's difficult to be emotional about a character with such little development yet such huge emotional payoffs
Perhaps that explains the rampant theories fans want to feel for her as they have for so many
protagonists over the years which must be sad for the Lucasfilm writers to think about Rey is a
Fascinating character case study and with the extended look into all three of the sequel films on the way
I feel like there's a lot to learn from her in terms of what not to do
Anyway si within an SAE over let's continue during this scene. We had a couple of light-hearted moments with Finn and Chewie
Many do point out that it's strange that Finn doesn't recognize a Wookiee
He is bewildered by the species when he probably shouldn't be since we know that the Empire not only crushed the Wookiees but used them
As slaves in more ways than one for years
You'd think they'd get some kind of history or training about alien species. But who knows?
Whether you enjoy this humor is almost down to whether you've decided the film is or is not for you at this point
This is arguably terrifying for Finn yet. He is making light of the scenario
It's executed in a slapstick manner laughs or not
The movie is trying to have you connect more to Finn moments after we get a quick line from Chewie. He's probably
apologizing for being shot
Just rest this is a suitable reminder of Chewbacca and Hans relationship
they've been a team for a long time and no matter what they will look out for each other which is important to
Reaffirm for what is to come Rey explains to Han that she is a scavenger and that Finn is resistance
this gives harm pause for thought it's
Unclear whether this moment is for the audience alone a sort of wink that Han is too smart to be fooled by Finn
But it strikes me as odd that Han seems to know that Finn isn't resistance yet
He is fine with the leaving Finn B
Would you not be concerned about someone pretending to be resistance if Finn was a mole for the first order?
It would actually explain a lot of what Han has seen and I love that. He's just basically saying I got your number
I know who you are. I know what you deal with. Well, then why trust him with staying free and clear on the ship?
Perhaps Han is still somewhat smart, but not that careful in his old age either way
They take a look at the map that bb-8 has according to Han. It's incomplete
The map in reality is just a piece of the map and looking for Luke is something people have been doing ever since he disappeared?
ever since Luke disappeared
People looking for this is as clunky now as it was when I made the unbridled rage
You can't actually try to find a missing person until they've gone missing but the line is written and spoken
ominously as
reinforcements that Luke is
Truly missing and I would imagine the point of it from a will building sense is to support the origin of the map
Luke hides out at the
mysterious arc - that he discovered the location for somehow and so people want the map that takes you to arc - in order to
Reach him many were searching and that's what took us - tecar because his piece of the map helps
You reach arc - rather than Luke
but either way
It's technically a map to Luke and that's why everyone refers to it as such
but that doesn't come close to answering anything substantive about the origin of the map nor the connective tissue between
Episode 6 and 7 and both the sequels are of no help in that regard
Though coming back han gives a quick summary of Luke's time between the film's
Apparently he attempted to train new Jedi and one student turned on him destroying all of it
Luke felt responsible and walked away from everything with the rumors pointing to him having gone to the first Jedi Temple
Han then confirms that the force the Jedi the dark and the light are all real as of course
They've been blown out of the history of this story and nobody is aware that this stuff genuinely
Existed for some reason finn is very shocked by this information when not a day ago
He saw someone used the force right in front of him a character that I imagined uses
It quite a lot many will try to compare this to the fact that the forces looked at as a remnant of a sad dead
religion in a new hope
only 19 years after the destruction of the Jedi - which I have to remind you that the bad guys won and they
Consolidated power they had two decades to control the narrative and dominate as the new power in the world
they crushed the Jedi they crushed it into a sad dead religion and any
Ignorant officer could make that comment without understanding the finer details of what happened and they could be punished for it
But I would concede that it's unlikely
This officer isn't fully aware of Vader's potential regardless that progression of events
The religion being crushed into oblivion is not something that happened here yet. The Republic is still in power and has been for decades
not to mention that the loss of any knowledge of the Jedi is not something Luke would allow I mean we actually
Know that he didn't allow it by continuing the Jedi Order yet
the stories of the OT apparently didn't spread very well the teachings from Luke were isolated to one temple and
Apparently nothing was addressed beyond that in the universe despite the world being freed by a Jedi
I guess not many people were interested in finding out about the guy who saved the galaxy or what a Jedi really was
Okay film have it your way
Just don't try to flip this with another story spreading like wildfire to inspire the world later on especially when that story is downright
Nonsense when being recanted you want to create your own legends
I understand that but you cannot do that while
Humiliating and destroying the legends that came before you they are the reason you have this opportunity in the first place
One more moment as a filmmaker whether it was in the screenwriting process or shooting something
Did you feel the transition from fan or felt ownership as a filmmaker of the Star Wars movie that you were making?
Oh, I keep waiting for that moment to happen
Well, then continuing on our heroes arrive at takodana with the intention of finding an ally to assist with the delivery of bb-8 to the
Resistance and general Leia as we arrive raysh is something I didn't know there was this much green in the whole cart
Pontoons to look at her with a face that tells you a lot about what he's thinking this girl has essentially been locked away on
A junkyard. There's a planet for so long that even seeing grass is an incredible experience to her
This is going to inform the decision that Han is already now making Ray has mechanic and piloting experience
To the degree that she can help in maintaining the falcon and she will appreciate
Every last new thing that they could possibly visit together while also being reverent of Hans previous exploits
So why not hire her not to mention this?
Reaction to simple trees and grass is accurate to Ray's history and despite taking about five seconds of the film
It's a great character moment for them. Both. Not just ray as Han Solo is reaffirmed to care about people other than himself
That's who he is
It's a glimmer of what potential this trilogy had and how much value there is in pushing character to the forefront
Instead of betraying them soon
After we see Finn is trying to find out whether he'll be safe in this new area
Asking if there are any first order sympathizers that could cause trouble we as the audience
know that he is actually worried about being recognized as a member of the first order his
Desperation leads him to attempting a sense of authority in front of Han to get his answers Shino. I'm a big deal in the resistance
Which puts a real target on my back listen. Thank you
Another problem
Always figure out the truth. This would likely be a strong character moment
If all we knew about Finn was what we'd learned from watching him since the crash landing Finn is attempting to lead the scenario
But slipping up and failing to control it because he's not as confident or experienced as harmed by a longshot
Nor as he is knowledgeable, which matches what we've come to learn about him in the past half an hour
But when considering his history this interaction seems rather strange
Finn would theoretically not only be confident and stalwart
But cautious and intelligent when it comes to concealing his identity. It wouldn't be something light
It's life and death for him as the conversation proceeds. He realizes harm can see right through him
It will only be a matter of time before
Raiders to harm then uses Finn's own words big deal
Against him pulling any sense of grandeur right out of him. This also helps represent a small amount of development between them later
There are some bumps though Finn's cognitive dissonance
Which we're getting to and harm not being interested in figuring out what Finn's goals are can be quite distracting
Regardless we've come to what is one of the strongest scenes in the film han gives Rey a pistol because he's convinced that she can
Take care of herself and he clearly respects her which is an interesting connection to his initial character
Han was equipped with his gun and his wits he knows she's smart
And now she has a pistol to boot possibly giving the audience the expectation that Rey is going to be the new Han
Especially since we've been given reason to assume finn could be the new luke
But of course we know that isn't how it turns out. You got a name
Rey
Again a warming moment between these two that brings Han closer to Rey and vice-versa
Especially when she realizes he is giving her the opportunity for a job
I'm thinking about she's excited at first only to decline because she wants to go back to jakku
This is of course not used as conflict beyond the coming scene with Mars
because the plot never places Rey in a position where she needs to make a decision between going home and
Protecting people or seeking adventure then again the plot does present this choice to Rey at the end of the film
But it isn't understood that way as Rey simply goes with the flow regardless, it's too bad
Chewie kind of likes you
Another strong yet minor character moment
Ray can recognize that Han is saying he?
Personally wants her there without him saying it. This is the kind of dialogue that suits Han Solo
He doesn't like to show emotional attachment without a sense of distance
We even see Han trying to give her subtle lessons from the get-go as she accidentally aims her weapon at him
So with all these little payoffs put together
It's a great start to what could be considered quite a meaningful
Surrogate father/daughter relationship proving something about what makes a parent and the potential run up to Ray
Realizing that she doesn't need to wait for her birth parents for belonging
She can find that through anyone who cares about her and vice versa
But the reality is that with the end of this scene, we have completed ray and Hans development
It's over and that is a crying shame as they were doing relatively
Well in this film at the time they'd spent on this particular relationship
Let's imagine for a second that we have a scene after much more development in which rage chooses han solo over her
absentee
Parents a man who is willing to act as a mentor
Perhaps Finn is captured instead of ray because he's a traitor and he's set to be
interrogated for information he gave away or gained while the first or to try to
Understand how he defected this could lead us to some great
confrontational lines for kylo and Finn to share the wannabe Vader
Dealing with someone who has discovered their values and will now never flinch on them
Meanwhile Han Chewie and Rey can work toward rescuing him giving them time to bond and explore the world
Hans death coming in at what could be the sequel movie will not only act as the loss of a parent Rey thought she found
But the pure motivation to hunt and kill kylo Ren drawing her to power that she's never felt before
Something she spent her life without after several failures in the storyline
She could become bitter resentful when Finn is ultimately rescued. He could find her unrecognizable compared to the girl
He was falling for this is one of the million different storylines that can be pursued what we receive instead throughout this entire
Trilogy, his wasted potential Rey was stonewalled by Han, but after he realized she hadn't seen much green stuff
He flips from wanting her eject - wanting to hire her this gives ray the acceptance
We only knew she wanted minutes ago and it brings these two together before heavily banking on that connection
there needed to be more more events to think about more for them to relate on more times where they help each other where they
Can teach each other more for harm to have a stake in before his death outside of that criticism?
however
I do want to take a moment to say that this is a consistent scene where we got quiet and characters got to share something
However small this is the kind of thing
We got in spades for the OT and it's the kind of thing
That is so absent from TR OS that action scenes end up fighting each other to be on screen
It's also the kind of thing that is desperately ignored in the last Jedi in favor of revisionist history broken moralization
baseless confusion and embarrassment
There was never any of those really sort of
Calm down
reflective moments in the film like there were in the originals like look looking out at the multiple suns and you know,
None of that kind of stuff
Why do you think people often reference these moments when discussing what the most meaningful aspects of the original trilogy are?
We need to know what a character is thinking why they are thinking it and what it means to those around them
This would be what I'm referring
To when I comment on what it's missing from the development in the new films these scenes act as stepping stones of progression
Not only do they facilitate a lull in the pace of the story
They provide an understanding of character motivations values and goals
Sometimes it's about being still and about doing less and as someone who often
you know is sort of
Cutting quickly and moving the camera a lot
my
Thought was not just to watch
but George Lucas did or
Kershner you know and and and sort of say well
let's
take you know from Star Wars but to look at some of the influences that that
They and we all have have had over the years and so just to rewatch some of the great John Ford movies
You know stagecoach searchers Liberty valance
You know Grapes of Wrath or to look at some of the Kurosawa films and to just you know, see
You know some of those close-ups that he gets in, you know
Seven Samurai or watching you jimbo a high and low it, you know it talked about in education
I mean these just watching those movies. It's not just entertaining
But they're just so powerful and their confidence and it was just a good reminder
To approach telling the story in a way that wasn't just like, you know about about speed
There's a lot of quick stuff that happens in this movie and there's a lot of action
But it's also important to let it breathe JJ recognizes how important it is yet
He opted to have the bare minimum so that his special-effects
Extravaganza could continue. Anyway, let's swap over to the technical issues during this scene
We get what honestly seems to be some ADR with a strong purpose
ADR stands for automatic dialogue replacement
and it means that the actors are brought in to record lines that get layered on top of finished scenes to make
Corrections or add new content in you could have a bad take without
realizing it on set or you could have forgotten to include a piece of
Exposition from the script the biggest tells for this so that the audio quality is very obviously different and oftentimes the lip-sync will be out
Or characters will not be facing the screen in order to hide it
For example, the first order wants the map Finn is with the resistance
I'm just a scavenger. Let's see that one more time. The first order wants the map Finn is with the resistance
I'm just a scavenger the force awakens' employs this technique more so than I've noticed in any of the other films in the saga
Oftentimes for exposition and small fixes to the script which funnily enough is something I do a lot in my videos
It's often frustrating to listen back to you because I can hear it so easily but re recordings are often very necessary
For clarity and consistency as many things get changed during production
The reason I mention ADR is that there's quite an important piece here
The characters are moving from the Falcon to the cantina and there is a discussion that explains large portions of the plot
Was anyone wondering why or how harm found the Falcon perhaps this same method is available to the first order
Does anyone wonder why they're at this cantina? Well, all of these questions are answered right here
I think it was luck that Chewie and I found the Falcon we can find it on our scanners first orders
Not far behind want to get bb-8 to the resistance
Canalis our best bet as a result of this throwaway line. The Falcon is now narrative Lee compromised
It can be scammed for by anyone at any time and it's only a matter of time before it is found by whoever is looking
According to Han this can explain many of our questions but as per usual with Disney Wars, it generates some new ones
The Falcon is no longer a viable
Escape method in any sane sense of the word Han found the Falcon because he was scanning and the first order can do the same
in fact if we take this forward
Then the first order could find the resistance base if they were scanning for the Falcon at the right time the whole reason our heroes
Came to this cantina is because they want a ship that isn't going to be scanned for
Apparently, so, of course, they still have these two characters call it in
So the scanner isn't the wife are being found on takodana
But we can get to that in a minute going back to the ADR
You can imagine why this line was taken care of in terms of delivery
It helps to explain large pieces of the plot we deal with the how and why
Chewie found the Falcon now later in dialogue that they were looking for it on a scanner
You see even JJ is aware that he has to justify his own choices in his story
He even seems to be proud of it when he believes
he's explained himself in his script but this proactive attitude is left by the wayside when dealing with most other elements in this script and
As we've been over most attempts to plug up holes in this franchise
force leaks in other areas the first being that it always took a device to
Consistently track a ship and now it's simply about getting a signature to scan for and presto but doing this creates problems for the foreseeable
Future as well as events prior nothing new in that regard
The sad part is that you could have had one of these guys throwing a tracker onto the Falcon to explain how the first order
founded in takodana from there
You have Maz Kanata
Contact the resistance as we've seen she can do so everything remains the same just structured with cause and effect rather than poor luck
But then how does Han find the Falcon in our rewrite?
well
You could have Finn and Rey
Accidentally access a secure system on the Falcon when they're trying to look for a solution in escaping the first order they could trip something
that Harned placed there for security years ago and after he hails them they could make a deal to get help in relation to the
Resistance and we're right back on track
I mean they could even travel to his new ship and when they get there he is under siege from one of the factions we
saw previously
And now if you desperately want to keep the scene with the funny meatballs
You still can instead we got this and a whole bunch of new questions
So Haun is aware of this flaw with the Falcon yet. He wants it out of what?
Sentimentality just get a new ship or scrub the frequency
You currently have I don't believe for a second that a smuggler wants his ship to be an infamously galaxy chased one
Especially when they have plenty of reasons to hate him already
In fact couldn't the Republic fix this up for him in some kind of space carriage?
I mean they could at least provide him a new ship as a reward for the Droid, right?
I know were jumping ahead but he has admitted that they could find the Falcon as easily as he did so he actively in dangers
Himself his old friend her livelihood and the resistance base. That seems incredibly
Dim-witted and downright malicious, but Han doesn't seem to notice
I don't understand why he would keep using the Falcon now that they have this scanning ability
Perhaps it was because this line was added in ADR to explain an earlier scene and has since been forgotten by everyone at Lucasfilm
Because it could only get in the way for future stories make sense to me
It is interesting that the first order have the scanning
Technology to find the Falcon and they couldn't pinpoint it despite being right next to it about ten minutes ago
The whole scanning thing is a writing tool
It's a weak one and it likely influenced the addition of the ridiculous hyperspace tracker from the sequel which makes things far worse
Regardless I want to clarify ADR is not a bad thing
there are varying degrees of
Execution and they almost always highlight what creators want to put in after the fact which can be interesting to consider
It tells you they definitely cared about that particular thing. I'm just a scavenger. I'm just a scavenger
Moving on we enter the cantina and it is frustratingly reminiscent of the fourth episode
So let's talk about that during a new
hope they visited a cantina in the hopes of getting a pilot smuggler from a large pool of people the likelihood was high because these
People stopped at this watering hole to look for work or even during their business in this film
They need find Maz Kanata so that she can provide an opportunity for a ship
This has nothing to do with a cantina. It just so happens that she owns one
this is what you may call a
convenience to the matter of the narrative being a complete clone of episode 4
JJ has to have a cantina
They could have gone to a shipyard a port any business of any kind
Really even just a standard house or home
But no it needed to be a cantina as they arrived han is called out by Maz Kanata
Who is the short alien that provides characters insight?
Only she's orange at this point
if you haven't already you start to see that there is a
Repurposing going on minor changes are made to give the film a sense of being new despite taking excessive
Portions from the old something that always cracks me up about this scene is that they need to stay inconspicuous
And Maz Kanata is aligned with the resistance. She helps them out quite a bit
Even when under literal fire and she refers to the first order as beasts. So what does she do?
She announces hands full name as soon as he walks in with all the subtlety of an elephant grenade and why well
It gives us the impression that these two know each other
Well that Han has probably caused two trouble before and this alludes to it
its purpose is to blindside the audience into
imagining the backstory instead of letting them realize that this quest giver is used not once but twice without any
significant exposition for how she relates to our heroes
herself, I mean I
felt I was attracted to
The heart of her and I was also attracted to the questions that I had
Concerning who she was and who she might become in
I'm sorry Lupita, even with all three movies. I have no idea who Maz Kanata is
Of course due to the
You can't really resist comparison here because it took just the one movie to have a fully developed character in Yoda
He had history. He had many quicks that came as a result of a long life
He had important decisions to make he had a stake in the drama
He had a team to root for and he had his own reasons
perhaps this is evidence that a simple copy and paste of
Superficial elements of the character with a pink job isn't enough to bring back the magic in any substantive way
Anyway, Han says Chewie is busy with the Falcon and our heroes sit down with Mars
but not before she makes a comment about Chewie being her boyfriend which when you couple that with this moment from the last Jedi
That's a thing, I guess the horny elderly orange Hobbit I
Loved my character. I was attracted to this character because there was depth to her and she's this
larger-than-life
otherworldly, I mean
Okay, speaking of this scene from tlj isn't it odd that Maz is a longtime friend of the resistance and yet she declines assisting them
in a moment of permanent destruction because of a
union dispute
What is there to have a union over when the entire Cantina was rubble by the end of this coming scene?
These films are set a day from each other. What kid what? Yeah, let's continue
we see a droid of some kind alert the resistance about bb-8 while a woman in black makeup moves to inform the first order as
Said previously a lot of people find this
Frustrating or boring because it was one of the easiest or cheapest ways to get things moving
The good guys aren't being attacked in this scene. So we better call in the bad guys
I agree with that sentiment but it is also very likely that someone here would be sympathetic to one of the two warring factions
Especially with what we assume is a bounty hunter order having gone out
So what I'm saying is no
I
Personally wouldn't have had this be the reason the first order found our heroes as it is extremely
Dissatisfying we could have gone with the tracker idea or the scanner idea there anything else but yes
it is reasonable that this could take place it is, however
Undeniably overused and we would call it a partial contrivance moving on
We see a Star Destroyer sitting close to the star killer base
Which yes, it's the Death Star 3.0 granted. It's like whether it's the set the Empire the first order
Gotta get a new idea man 3 the third time was not the charm no more death stars for these guys
I didn't necessarily feel that star killer base was really all that. Great
It was just there and it was something that x-wings had to fight. It kind of felt like a third Death Star
That's where you're right. Mr
Stockman, but it can't be a star war without a giant laser ball or a few thousand as we enter. Kylo stardestroyer
we see him worshipping Darth Vader's helmet and he asks Vader to show him the dark side claiming that he will finish what Vader
Started this scene was rather
Fascinating at first especially being that it was shown in the trailer to generate massive
Amounts of hype since there were so many directions
It could take the plot thread was dropped in the sequel and then picked back up in the rise of Skywalker
Now that the story is over we can certainly ask some questions
Why would kylo be under the impression that Vader was a darkside enthusiast at his end?
He was the one who killed the Emperor and brought an end to the Sith
At least as far as kylo knows what is kylo referring to when he says I'm going to finish what you started
Some kind of goal that we hadn't heard of did Luke never tell the world of Anakin Skywalker
The Fallen Jedi that rose to save the world in his final moments. Did Snoke could tell kylo lies about Vader
How would that have worked? We don't know any of this secondly
We now know that it's Palpatine speaking to kylo and with that being revealed nothing happens and kylo Baili seems to care
Despite them translating to us that this was his core
Motivation a reveal like that would have given kylo ample reasoning for killing Snoke something that could have used
Oh, well thirdly where is Vader's force ghost? Why isn't he addressing this whatsoever?
It's almost like force ghosts are used when convenient if we factor in the last Jedi than Yoda should have already wiped out the first
Order with a few lightning strikes
So does Vader's ghost care that his descendant is being corrupted
No, but he cares enough to talk to ray when she needs a morale boost despite all of those writing problems
It makes for a great
Superficial moment an easy way to get people's brains writing for you immediately
Thinking about all of the possible avenues allow this helmet to end up here and what it's going to mean for the future
But that wasn't the intention from the get-go right to have a moment that would easily manipulate the audience bereft of any meaningful
Creative substance behind it. When I saw the sculpt that Luke Fisher did for the Vader mask. This charred burnt remains
I just started laughing because I just knew the scene was gonna work. Oh it worked. JJ. Just not for very long
How's that for a tagline for the force awakens?
The sad fact is that this film and it's sequels would likely function just fine without this scene. If not experience improvements since we're told
confusingly that Anakin is showing Ben the dark side and that he's conflicted which I mean
That's all kylo Ren ever is you were so right
The point of the right kinda little things die I'm being torn apart
The obvious purpose of the scene is to give the fans a glimpse of Vader undeniable fanservice and clunky fanservice at that
How in the world did they manage to retrieve this thing? Anyway, wasn't it completely destroyed via?
Conflagration over 30 years ago. I think you're stretching that just a little bit JJ
But it's not like we haven't seen this in other portions of the script now. Have we at least we have kylo Ren?
That's new is overcompensation with a voice and masks to intimidate can be fun to play with for a while
Who knows perhaps wearing the mask was an aesthetic choice at first but after his interactions in battle
It becomes a part of him something
He no longer
wants and yet cannot get rid of maybe there's something that connects wearing it to the Knights of Ren or maybe Snoke gave it to
Him. I know I'll be interested to see what they end up doing with it when I got this job
I was I was just really excited to get to work without him
One of the first things I thought was I got to figure out the way to get that mask out of the way
Right then Maz tells Han he should go home to counter his request for a transport
She's taking the role of therapist during what is essentially the most important mission that Mars is faction can actually commit to right now
It's pretty frustrating that she's wasting so much time
especially when she announced their presence despite being a good guy and the idea that she's some kind of sage is
laughable
Considering that if she did put Han on any kind of path it simply pushes him to argue with Leia his son and it leads
To his death along with kylo realizing that he is truly an evil man
Well until he isn't but in the eyes of many in the audience this action makes him irredeemable
Either way han is certain that Leia doesn't want to see him Mars then explains that the darkside fight is
Essentially never ending in that during the prequels the Sith with a dark side in the OT
It was the Empire that were the dark side and now it is the first
order that of the dark side the fight against the dark side and never ends, which is
interesting except the problem is that the film has done nothing to explain what the
similarities or differences between these things even are outside of being against the good guys or rather the
Protagonists the Empire was headed by a Sith Lord
And it was destroyed the day that Sith Lord perished along with it
the first order are just the Empire again with the people who look and act like Sith but are apparently different even though it's literally
Palpatine this time it's Snoke and we have no continuity beyond the fact that he is on the dark sides team he was around for
A while and I guess he hates Luke Skywalker for reasons. It is fascinating that Maz
Kanata is trying to make a
non-committal case for the idea that it makes sense for the will to just repeat itself as if the writers are taking a moment to
Explain the nature of the will building being so utterly
Monotonous that having 1 million Star Wars sequels that cover the same ground is simply what to expect Mazda's attempts are connecting these three
trilogies by revealing
similarities in the bad guys is going to thud and delivery since they've been heavily criticized by the
audience for being far too similar for no good reason
Already why even give them different names if you're now trying to convince us that yes
They pretty much are the same thing and there won't be any meaningful differences
It's actually kind of fascinating to think about she's saying the dark side will always be with us in one form or another
But thanks to the rise of Skywalker
We now know that all three forms across all three trilogies were Palpatine the whole time and despite the rise of Skywalker
Essentially acting as JJ Abrams scribbling over his own scene here
Let's run with the idea that the fight never ends and the light side always has a dark side to rise
Against it just like Snoke preaches about in the sequel, but the problem still stems with the ending of the OT
They establish peace. That was the all-time high point for those people and now you've made it. Hollow
There was no expectation that it would only last for a few years and then we were back to war with Palpatine
That's not only depressing as a concept when compared to the message in the films
But it snatches away the achievements of those older characters then again, I don't think anybody really achieved anything in this universe
No one's ever really gone
Coming back to this scene
however
Disney have morph to the very core of Star Wars and the meaning of balance in the force as far as I was aware it
Was never supposed to mean that there's an equal amount of light side users to dark side users and this struggle is constantly ongoing
With new users spawning as are the ones die. Allegorically the fight between good and bad or greater and lesser values
Will of course continue in life as we know it
Permeating rather poignant ly through the fictional wills we create but boiling that down to a force
generating more bad good or like dark people based on which teams numbers are lower at the time is
Embarrassing and the prequels make it an impossibility. I was under the impression. It was something much more specific
What happens when you go to the dark side is it comes out of balance?
and then you get really selfish and you forget about everybody and you ultimately
Lead yourself because when you get selfish you get stuff
Where you want stuff and when you want stuff and you get stuff then you get are afraid somebody's gonna take it away from you
Overcome the dark side is discipline. The dark side is pleasure biological and
Temporary and easy to achieve the light side is joy everlasting
and difficult to achieve an imbalance is a turn toward the dark to the selfish a
Rebalance is to focus on the light though. This topic is perpetually discussed
My concern is that with Disney's reimagining of balance
They feel they've unlocked the ability to make infinite films with infinite bad guys and good guys fighting infinitely over Death Star's
cantinas x-wings Star Destroyers lightsabers and small wise aliens
There is no story to tell anymore
This is but a tiny piece of a huge
Ongoing snake that continues to consume itself until no more money can be made
I'm sure in due time both the beginning and end will no longer be the beginning and end
It keeps going both before after and during
It's always about the light side and the dark side more Palpatine's more FETs more
Skywalker's and more solos disney looked too far ahead
They rushed into a whole universe filled with infinite star wars
blockbusters instead of taking a strong step first something like the
Mandalorian a small story carving out new areas of the universe while focusing on a specific
Character though that show has a myriad of its own issues
So yeah
The battle officially goes on
Light and dark tied together forever one is always winning and the other is always catching up
There is no balance as all things shouldn't be this
realisation puts the force above factions above
relationships above
Characters it waters them down to either be on the light side of the force or the dark in order to balance them all out
the fact that they had their own
Policies and a militaristic might crushing any resistance because they wanted to rule out of power hunger isn't a thing anymore
It's all the force the force makes these factions rise and fall
They will make comebacks on either side if ever things are out of balance
Han Solo never cared for the force, but it did care for him. I suppose this
deconstruction helps to fix a new groundwork for Disney in that infinite episodes of Star Wars can be
Created but they forgot the part that people don't want to see the OT over and over again
In fact at this point the further you stay away from it the better
Anyway Mars points out that Finn is a character defined by his desire to run and his response is pretty clear
You don't know a thing about me where I'm from what I've seen they'll slaughter us
we all need to run that is probably the only
Dialogue from the film and delivery from John boyega as a whole that matches what we know about the characters history
Something that we're soon to get to Mars then gives him advice on who to go to if he wants to escape
After having given Harned vice about Leia and before she ends up giving advice to Rey
Advice that doesn't really have an effect on Rey considering she doesn't end up making any choices
advice that gets Han killed advice that gets kylo Ren further away from his family and
Advice that Finn doesn't really take because he wants to follow Rey once she's gone
It's fascinating from a story perspective
But Maz, Kanata really only exists to slow them all down while the first order catches up to them in this area
She isn't really relevant to the story outside of being a prop in a place that other things can happen in no one
Anything worthwhile from her and considering the results of many journeys that get started by her advice
It would have made more sense for her to be a part of the dark side
You know, we had a female at the center
But we also had Leia returning we had an amazingly strong female character non-human called Maz Kanata that Lupita Nyong'o plays
Female a hawk Haven Rey tries to convince Finn to stay but he ultimately
Chooses to leave because he's sure that the first daughter will find and kill them finn is then seen discussing transport with these two creatures
Yun seoktae I was told you can get me to the Outer Rim
Apparently he understands their language but not Chuy's rey then debates finn to the point of getting him to admit his history
Who you think I have been? What are you talking about? Not resistance
I'm not a hero. I'm
a strong trooper finn
Like all stormtroopers was taken from a family at a young age that he will now never know
stormtroopers are trained their whole lives to be proficient at
Soulless killing Finn decided he would make his choice and never kill for the first order after seeing the barbaric nature
of their goals put into practice so he ran and he found Rey and now all he
Cares about is getting them both out of harm's way. I call him. I was taken from a family. I'll never know and
Raised to do one thing. Well, it's about that time
I gave in a small assessment earlier from what we've seen and he's been pretty consistent when ignoring everything prior to landing on jakku
Yes, he is clumsy
But he's relatively quick on his feet and courageous with his overall goal being motivated by the reduction of suffering
He seems to be a good guy at heart. It's almost like he's just an average person in the wrong place at the wrong time
Everything we've seen and we'll see mostly supports this idea of his character
but now we've dropped a major amount of development onto him in three sentences that smashes a lot of our
Expectations of finn in general why in the world? Is he this character? Why is he so well-adjusted and friendly?
Why is he maintaining a cool head in the face of some really tough situations while also messing around I can fry anything?
I'm not the one who take you down with
Myself this often works for an audience sure
It works for a fun interesting frenetic storyline, but it's not working for a human being that's been through what he has
This is a man who's endured 20 years of having one thing drilled into his head to
ruthlessly erase anyone who doesn't follow the regime a
Die-hard first-order zealot and yet during the massacre
He seems like a completely unrelated civilian being plunged into pure horror
I find it very hard to believe that this is what a brainwashed born to kill soldier of fascism does when he sees death
Especially when were shown his proficiency with a blaster and his reliance on them
If we are to ignore TR OS for a moment the excuse that's floated around previously is that Finn was only
Sanitation and that this was his first fight that explains it all but doesn't that just make it even more ridiculous?
Why in the world would the first-order attach a janitor to a battle squad?
They might do it if they were desperate for troops, but we know they aren't so okay
Let's say for the sake of argument that they wanted to replace him with a younger
Janitor, and they only have one per planet because that makes sense
And thus they threw him as excess onto an assault squad
But why go to the point of training a new janitor when this one is in his prime and knows that everything works already?
Okay, I'm getting out of this rabbit hole
The main point is why bother putting a janitor in combat in the first place?
It is far from a strategic decision or one explained by laziness
It's just odd
besides the angle that he's a janitor and thus
Unprepared for combat is worthless because he just described the fact that he's been taught to kill since birth
So he should have been as prepared as everyone else was and why in the world was he a janitor?
anyway
Do janitors get vigorous?
training on murder and conquest in prep for those really tough to remove stains by attempting to provide the
Stormtroopers with a new history to separate them from the prequel clones and the OT troopers. They have not only
Significantly damaged their own will building they have now fundamentally crippled the writing for Finn in particular
It just doesn't make sense that his character would exist
He should be gruff
Hardened a fighter with a heart of gold that forced him out of the first order to venture outside of star wars for a moment
Finn would be comparable to simon Pegg's character from Hot Fuzz
Police constable Nicholas angel graduated Canterbury University in 1993 with a double first in politics and sociology
Received the bat on the bottom
Graduating with distinction he to the Metropolitan Police Service, the K level II involved in a number of extra vocational activities
To dis tails the net record for the hundred meter dash
Received a bravery award for efforts in the resolution that population crackdown
Has received nine special commendations achieve the highest arrest record for any officer in the mint he is tough no-nonsense
This notebook has saved my skin more times than I care to mention. You should think about using yours more often
I do use mine. Show me
That's justice for tonight said I could be an amazing policeman officer
There's always something going on Danny and you'll be an amazing police officer until you understand that but as we see
He is human. He has a significant emotional side to him. I don't remember a time when I didn't want to be a police officer
coughing the summer of 1979 when I wanted to become at the Frog I
Had to prove to myself that the law could be proper and righteous. It was from that moment
I was destined to be a police officer
Shame I saw I think you would have made a great Muppet
I was buying clothes. We'll put them in a Japanese. Peace lily for his birthday
fin like angel could be portrayed as having no time to treat the situation as anything but
Serious because lives are always on the line and this character has seen how bad it can go you could spend the film's having ray
Break him down and feel levity again
This would also set you up for some great insights into the first order through thin he can describe why they fight how they feel
And what life is like leading to what sculpted his personality but we get nothing. Well, we got this
I think they created the ex
stormtrooper in the hopes to make an interesting new origin for a character then they wanted the character to be a beat and
Fun because it's Disney even though fun is simply not a part of his horrific history
So they made him a janitor to try and bridge that awkward gap resulting once again in even more
questions that seek to break his character completely when you started
Was Finn a much different character? My first approach was played Finn as
quite Stern and serious and
You know
Blatantly to work because I the tightness of all the stuff I was going up for and JJ's the one that kind of filled with
that down I'm
Not that so much for that outside of Finn's
Inconsistencies this notion that the troopers have been trained from childhood to be merciless combat ready?
Instruments of war is almost impossible to believe as we've seen so many of them fail so miserably vot
He didn't go into depth for what they were troopers were assumed to be
conscripted men from the planets under the loyal banner of the Empire a
Loyalty that was shown to be misplaced once the Empire made their intentions clear
The Empire's strength was found in their numbers as a result of them having the ruling government
the cannon fodder in their armies was very much suitable in both the narrative and as a
representation of war now in the future we arbitrarily provide this massive power to the bad guys once again,
Then we add extensive lifelong training to the troopers only to have them fail to live up to even the best of their predecessors this
Idea permeates the trilogy remember since I mentioned it hours ago at this point
The troopers are conditioned once they've been torn from their original families. No way. It's the reverse
My men are exceptionally trained programmed from birth
So they're programmed from birth while also having been taken from families at a young age
The first order must have a planet of families to poach from the grow babies
As I said before, we're of the good guys been during this fiasco
well during a bunch of
Fiasco's from what we understand these events have been ignored by the Republic and it's implied that people have known about this for a while
Listen to what Finn says I call him. I was taken from a family
I'll never know like all of them as if it's an accepted premise this
Information is for the audience rather than a reveal for the world surrounding Star Wars
I think the writers inserted the line about families to make Finn seem more sympathetic in terms of his change
But if we're to believe Huck's about the brainwashing then surely this should be a crack team of super soldiers loyal to the flag
So why are they all incompetent? Well, we need that guy fodder for our heroes
It's called Star Wars. Oh, it's okay because it's Star Wars
I mean
I think it's bad whenever it happens in Star Wars and that the first order are simply exceptional in their incompetence
Highly skilled programmed from birth foot soldiers unlikely ot shouldn't be portrayed as idiots
But hey, you're welcome to your own perspective on this. That's totally fair
why does media keep perpetuating the fact that stormtroopers are just
Incompetent idiots can't we just get one bit of Star Wars media where the main icons of the series can be threatening. Yeah
Okay, whenever someone says they're a fan of cosmonaut variety hour. Just ask them which cosmonaut variety hour
They're a fan of you might think it's a little strange that I'm judging a comic book movie based on the comic that it takes
It's material from because I usually don't do that
I usually like to judge these as completely separate stories, but when the comic has done so much better than the movie
It's hard to ignore
No, my stupid corny cartoon villain wasn't represented the same way he was in the comics. Yeah, we'll get over it
All right. I read a lot of comics and if I got mad every time something was different
I would have died of a heart attack back when I saw Fantastic Four
But when the comic has done so much better than the movie. It's hard to ignore. Yeah. Well get over it
All right. He has serious trouble sticking to any position
There are some people who are claiming that it is impossible to blow up a fleet by slamming into it with the hyperdrive
To those people I have this to say
No, but all joking aside shut them up you goddamn
Idiots, it's a movie about space wizards. There are no rules stop making up to be mad about
Analyze a film like a regular person pick a part with made-up fantasy facts
The new inquisitors use their weird gimmicky lightsaber to fly like a helicopter
I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous. Anyone who takes this show seriously needs to just look at this
Imagine if during the fateful battle between Luke and Vader one of them twirls their sword around and flies away
That's not how the force works
There are no rules stop making up to be mad about that's not how the force works
I really think people have been giving Rey a very bad rep for some pretty bad reasons
Most people just say they don't like her because she's too strong, but I don't know doesn't bother me
I personally don't really mind seeing a character who is good at things in Star Wars
All the other main characters and Star Wars are really good at stuff
Oh, how come obi-wan can defeat a Sith Lord all by himself when his master couldn't even do that
How come Luke is really good at using the force without getting any training?
Sabine is a walking hot topic ad she feels like the force strong female character
She couldn't be more MarySue unless she was also force sensitive which at this point wouldn't even really surprise me
People just say they don't like her because she's too strong, but I don't know. It doesn't bother me
She couldn't be more MarySue unless she was also force sensitive
Incidentally, you should all watch Etha episode 85 and you will totally understand what I mean my video on the force awakens
I addressed this issue a bit more so I'm not gonna go again
Basically this is the kind of series where you really need to just accept the dumb stuff and enjoy the stuff that you like you
Don't how do you conclude that? The prequels are bad and TF is good then yeah just accept the dumb stuff
You can't conclude anything about anything install wars. If you do this, it's all
Right now is hypocritical of everything. He said the past 15 minutes of this video
Jarring character shifts are not justified within this narrative
We are supposed to see him killing Dooku as a bad thing, but based on anything we've seen in the series so far
There's nothing wrong with him killing Dooku. Nope
Yep, so this big difference between killing bull here at killing Dooku he so
armed, whoa
Your friend is this there's a world of difference here cosmic how do you don't see this this dealt the same thing at all
I like killing balls find the killer Dooku isn't like hah boy killing people with weapons
It's the same as killing people without weapons who are defenseless and who have surrendered. Did you see the look of Duke whose face?
He's actually like upset and sad he's like, please don't kill me
Bear Darth Maul our heroes never spared any of the enemies
These are not purple
I was about to say this happens in real life
this is a thing in real life so much shooting at you in a wall shoot back if that piss is like
Dying on the floor with no weapons and you've captured everyone around there. It's all over, you know, just wow
Why are you even saying this you want to establish that the film is wrong for framing Anakin?
Executing an unarmed prisoner is a bad thing
The bad thing is the fact that we see Palpatine manipulating Anakin and Anakin
Recognizes what he's done is bad. It is definitely bad what he does link in the description
anyway Finn tries to convince Rey to leave and she decides to stay she wants to deliver bb-8 because
well
There isn't a reason she's along for the ride and for that one line of plot progression. I can now explore another tangent
I've been alluding to previously when you look at the OT or well most media
you have the introduction of each character being very clear in terms of their goal and
Motivation a young adult seeking adventure in pursuit of a captured Princess and the fight against a fascist government
an older man seeking closure for the destruction of his people and
culture by carving a path for overthrowing
Those who erased his will so long ago while sowing the seeds for a hero to take his place
A man seeking a paycheck in exchange for a job
Well done a woman seeking the means to protect innocent people a man looking for atonement for the mistakes
he made these people go on journeys and their actions reflect their interests until their interests are met or
changed by events
Events that are caused by choices other people make based on their own
Interests this often generates what we call a plot and the strong spine of a story
Can you apply this foundation to ray-ray?
Is a girl who seeks belonging in the sense of parental figures and as a result of this she decides to help the resistance
That doesn't make a lot of sense. Thanks to presumably Mars's advice
She decides Luke Skywalker can provide her that belonging only to discover that she didn't need Luke or her parents to find
belonging that makes some sense
unfortunately, it took two movies to say that we won't discover who Rey is from any particular person rather than spending time on who she
Is they gave us something small to work with in the beginning, but that's it
Our time is otherwise wasted being told that we're looking in the wrong place
Besides if you reverted Rey to search for parent mode in tlj
Why would her prefered port of call be a guy who was a myth to her hours ago?
I guess she must really trust that Mars was right though
Most of it seems motivated by an attempt to ape scenes without narrative support because that's how you create
Success and we haven't even gotten to the rise of Skywalker references
Yet. Anyway Rey's seize Finn off and then gets distracted by hearing distant screams
These turn out to be her own from when she was a child
They then lead her to a room in the lower areas of maz's cantina
The door suddenly opens for her because the force is and she ends up finding
Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber
Grabbing it takes her on a vivid trip of visuals through different lands and sounds and well, let's take this slow
first of all Anakin's lightsaber being in this small box in the cantina is
Hilarious the film avoids having to explain it with what can be understood as quite an insulting line when it comes to storytelling
a good question
For another time what a wonderful literal mystery box
This is a blatant admission from the writer that they don't want to explain something
they wanted to have it's kind of like resurrecting a character and just asking people to get over it was there ever a plan and
this connects to
Maz is backstory. In fact in the original script
you saw the
Lightsaber that's falling through space and landing in the ground and a hand taking it and you used to have this entire backstory
Where we learned what happened with the lightsaber Luke's lightsaber
Over the years and how it ended up finally in the hands of Maz Kanata all of that became
Backstory and in fact is thrown away in one line now in the movie
so apparently there was a draft where the lightsaber was floating through space until it fell and was ultimately
Retrieved by a hand, but of course that would have been even more ridiculous so they cut it
It's only later that they decide they will explain how any of this is possible
We could have had some dialogue or a scene to explain how it got there in a more reasonable way
During which there could have been some wheel building giving us more information about how the pieces ended up in their respective
Positions instead of wasting your time. For example, you could explain how Mars even knows Han and the rest of the characters
Do you remember all of the pieces of exposition they had to explain Lando and Hans history during Empire Strikes Back?
Do you trust him? No
No, love for the Empire
He tell you that he wouldn't take a few minutes to have a collection of lines that can add a real
Structure to your story the lightsaber could have dropped into some kind of debris collector in Bespin
And since there was a Kyber crystal in the handle
It was processed as a foreign valuable object perhaps it was sorted into a specific collection for the workers to send to management
Perhaps Lando eventually returned to Vespa and perhaps we spend an entire opening following the lightsaber through the years that we've missed
Think of all the information we could gain by simply watching it change hands
Perhaps Luke left it behind and Leia entrusts it to Mars because she is on a mission to find Luke herself
This is obviously pretty rushed in terms of an excuse to get the lightsaber to this location for this moment
And normally I would outright refuse the idea as a whole but it's something the writers instead chose to avoid the subject
Entirely in both this film and its sequels opting to have third-party information
Fix their mess regardless coming back to the film
We have ourselves
A vision sequence a vision sequence that teases you in terms of what can be expected from these coming films
We see Luke and r2d2 at a fire and the sight of some destruction. Thanks to the last Jedi
We now know this is Luke mourning the deaths of his students and the raising of the Jedi Temple
After he dealt with the thought of killing kylo, but if left untended by the sequel this image is quite powerful. We also see
Kylo leading the Knights of Ren to kill what we could now assume is the other students from Luke's training
These are very likely the same Knights that were referenced by Snoke earlier. It means nothing to me
even you
Master of the Knights of Ren Wow, all that seems really interesting. Is there gonna be a backstory for that?
but the question of why he wears the mask was answered in his
insecurity that he was involved with the Knights of Ren which we have a whole backstory for
The idea of the Knights and their history as shown here is dropped entirely in the sequel
They aren't even referenced thus making this scene in the force awakens aid sheep tease
Considering how they ended up being utilized in the rise of Skywalker, but I suppose when it comes to retcons
JJ had the last laugh
What can you tell us about your connection to the dark side, can you tell us anything No
While you guys were away in those seconds there I had a thought have you noticed how many times we often
Hope that a sequel will fix the issues of the predecessor. Imagine being brought on as a creator with a job like that
You can't even fix your own story because you've got to fix someone else's and in the case of the rise of Skywalker the man
Who was brought in for repairs is the one who broke the damn thing in the first place?
It's such a bizarre circumstance. And I think it's fair to say in the cosmic roll of the dice
We were pretty unlucky when it comes to the sequel trilogy moving on. We see Rey as a child
She is watching what we know are her parents after they sold her for drinking money. Hmm
Well, let's just run with that for a moment was Reyes slave on jakku
she seemed to be a
scavenger trader vaguely taking part in this struggling
Economy trading scrap in exchange for food something that others do as well leaving her free to do whatever she wants in the meantime
Including but not limited to leaving the planet entirely, which is interesting when comparing to Anakin slave life on Tatooine
Rey could leave whenever she wanted but let's assume it is all slavery wouldn't unkar plutt have raised - is he a character?
We should be concerned with since he seems to have been her potential father figure for her entire life
I mean she was sold to him, right?
Was it an Anakin Watteau style relationship or did he mean something more to her considering unlike Anakin Rae didn't have an equivalent of shimmy
Skywalker as far as we know it begins to poke some holes in the very concept of Rey being so kind and personable
Unless of course, she had someone to protect her from the expected hardening of her outlook
but even with tr OS that simply isn't his story, however
Speaking of I wonder if the third installment will change our perception of Rey's history once again
Also, I find it pretty funny that she apparently had the same hairstyle as a three-year-old as she does now
But then she changes it for the last Jedi don't panic people who are not a fan of my channel
That's not me saying that a hairstyle ruined the entire film. I just think it's an amusing detail
anyway
Rey is faced directly
With kylo Ren and what may be foreshadowing for the finale and then she's led out of the sequence
There were many distinct sounds as well like Vader's breathing
Comments on the force and both iterations of obi-wan Kenobi getting a line in there all of these things
Send chills down the spines of many long-term fans and whoever put this sequence together nailed it if that's what they were going for
It's just a pity that the more substantive potential of this scene is squandered by the future of this story
So then Mars sees ray and explains that the lightsaber belonged to Luke and his father before him only now
It calls to Rey. This would be why people assumed Rey was Luke's daughter to line up with this
But the problem is that the lightsaber didn't call to Luke whatever that means
The trippy dream sequence is very much new and dissimilar from Luke's experience in Dagobah
Luke certainly didn't go on some form of an adventure when he touched the handle and Anakin could have
Context 'less visions of the future but there was room to understand that it was a nightmare as well
This is either a new force power for the saga or a new feature of objects with relevant histories to the characters touching them it
Is also something that would very likely be present in third-party content already
But we as an audience could use a small guiding
Explanation for what is happening here and they would be happily forgiven for placing it at any juncture throughout the trilogy
But they don't and they don't really have to it doesn't necessarily affect anything in any way
It's more of an in-universe trailer for the trilogy
It's almost as if they wanted the scene to be filled with incredible imagery and references to make fans go crazy
But they had no reasonable way to implement it
So we have the save a shroom trip
and again
They wanted to ape the classic scene of getting the lightsaber from an old chest only it made sense for Obi one to pass down
The lightsaber to Luke he is attempting to push Luke to take on his father
Whereas here Rey found the lightsaber because it simulated her own childhood
screams that only she could pick up and the reason it could do that is because it ended up in the cantina by what we
assume is complete luck like Rey ending up here because Han randomly chose it to get a ship and that's after he
Luckily bumped into Rey though if we put aside how we ended up here
it's still odd that Ray's treating this discovery with such shock and reverence the whole thing plays out as if she's a longtime fan of
Star Wars having a dream where they find this thing
The scene has no reason to have anything to do with her
In fact, it has every to do with wish fulfillment for a fan
She goes to this box which when she opens she discovers
Something that of course has no meaning to her. She's never seen
This before doesn't know what it is, but it has meaning to the audience. I know JJ but that makes the scene almost
Nonsensical she's behaving like a stand-in for the audience instead of a character something you have precedent for incorporating
Incompetently anyway Mars then reveals that Ray's parents aren't coming back and that the belonging she seeks can be found with Luke
Reyes then offered the lightsaber, but she rejects it and runs away from the cantina now
I seriously can't believe how much there is to deconstruct between them arriving at and leaving takodana
But I'm not the type to skip past it
So let's do it
If we go with the force awakens alone
Then the film tells us to care about Rey's parents again
and again
Then at the build-up for Rey's low point she realizes through Mars that her parents aren't important because they won't return
Thus she will not find belonging through them
What apparently should be pursued instead is Luke?
Skywalker through Luke, Rey will find belonging it's as if the film is setting up a teacher-student
Relationship that Rey will connect to and eventually see as a father-daughter one instead of waiting to connect to her parents
So what does the sequel do?
Well, we broaden from having ideas solely about belonging to more of an idea about a well-known lineage ideas
That weren't present in the first film by admission of even the main character
Regardless we learned that Luke wants nothing to do with ray or the Jedi and boots are off
the island
Rey is now not supposed to get her belonging from Luke instead the focus shifts back to the parents that were made redundant only days
Ago and despite having been told they are inaccessible due to never returning she is now shocked to know that they are
Inaccessible because they are dead but now we also have something else something much more overt being that they are
nobodies
Which still makes no sense in any way other than meta?
crippling our understanding of this world while also giving Rey this new goal of simply being a part of a well known bloodline by the
conclusion her parents are redundant again and the focus goes back to Luke his sacrifice and
Reuniting with the resistance on top of declining kylos offer. This shows us that Rey doesn't need to belong to a group
She doesn't need to have parents that are part of a well-known lineage
She can simply be Rey even though she totally is a part of a group. Look it's awkward
It's confusing but there's something there to be wrestled out only then we get the rise of Skywalker repeating all of the beats
we just went through but with a different idea on who her actual parents are yet again this
hyperactive
Schizophrenic mess feels like two writers that hate each other were blackmailed into working on the same
character many detractors will blame the fans for being too caught up in Rey's origins despite the fact that that
Narrative has been pushed since the first of the trilogy
in fact belonging and lineage for Rey is the
Consistent backbone of all three films fans are invested in theories for all kinds of reasons in this case
There's an abundance but many were pushed in that direction by the films and the desire to explain raised power
The force awakens ended the plot of Rey's parents rather definitively. They're never coming back
Only for that very subject to be reopened and explained and closed again twice
For dead in a pauper's grave and the jakku desert
You have no place in this story you come from nothing nor his granddaughter
You a repeal party
Rey Skywalker
We know that the last Jedi had no respect for the Saga it was supposed to be adding to but it is interesting to think
About the idea that the last Jedi ignored and insulted the force awakens' as well
So let's address that a little bit here
people have this mentality that the payoffs were only poorly written in the last Jedi because of how
mysterious the setups were in the force awakens
the force awakens has its own issues for sure has
Evidenced by this series, but paying off a set up badly does not mean it's the fault of the set up
That's lunacy
You need simply hire a writer that can handle the scope of the project
The force awakens in all of its faults provided a springboard for the writers of the sequel to work with from Rey's past to these
visions all the way over to a new power in the universe and positions for the classic characters with new people to explore you have
a base to work with granted
it's a poor base compared to what was possible but it's not like there's nothing to work with in any case not only was the
Limited resource squandered they repeated what we had already seen down to Rey crying over the realization that hip herons are out of reach
As if it wasn't enough to plagiarize the original films, you have to copy and paste sections of the force awakens as well
I mean that film was massively successful. So why not the Ouroboros?
Comparison is getting more apt as we progress perhaps the writers are trying to say that Mars is unreliable
Despite being established as a character who can see who people are in an instant nailing both Han and Finn's characters
But failing to direct them effectively, I guess she had a blind spot for Rey though
I should probably stop since by mentioning her name and potential character traits
I've already taken more care with maz kanata's character than the script has or it's sequels will
Yeah
Outside of Mars saying that Rey should close her eyes and focus on the force to let it flow through her
She's pretty much ignored from there Rey
Emotional due to the recent information about her desires and her parents decides to sprint into the forest just outside of the cantina
considering the urgency of this mission that Rey is very much aware of
added to the idea that this is an alien planet on top of the fact that she has absolutely
Nowhere to go. This decision is rather baffling. Why didn't Trey run to the cantina restroom
Why didn't she run to the Falcon? Why didn't she simply sit down at the steps outside?
I suppose the better question is why did she run to this very spot in the forest?
well
The answer is simple
The writers needed her to be kidnapped by kylo Ren in such a way that doesn't provide her friends a chance to stop him
She needs to be far away from them
The fact is that if she needed air she would have hung around outside so that she could find her
companions as soon as the fighting begins
But with the way she moves she seems to have a goal like she's heading somewhere in particular
It can't be the Falcon because Chewie is currently there and he would never let her leave without Han
Nor should Rey happily abandon them
anyway
So what if we give ray a ship to head to another structure she wants to find an escape vehicle in?
Someone she wants to find anything from there
You can have her friends assaulted and she chooses to help them instead of going home when she has the chance and she gets captured
For it, but no you went with
Nothing. This is so rushed and so very very cheap. And the reason I'm highlighting it
Is that the rest of the story relies on this decision?
It's what pushes the deuteragonist and the majority of the characters through the film still
It's very odd that a character who is so strongly established as confident
resourceful and happy is now reduced to tears because
Someone said she's going to find belonging with some other person and that she won't see her parents
But on top of that why is she taking Mars?
So seriously
Why does she trust her and wouldn't it have been stronger to establish here that her parents are dead
Considering the reaction we have to work with and if you have Mars saying around other pieces of information that are true it will lend
Credence to the idea that the parents really are dead as the story then progresses
We can decide as writers whether to bring Rey's parents
In or commit to their deaths and that information is surely far more terrifying for someone who defined their life by waiting for these
People I don't know there's just so much you can do. So we're back with the first-order
Huck's is giving a very imposing speech brimming with confidence and conviction
bolstered by his Swift assessment of his enemy in the Republic he is fierce and
destructive with language quite a formidable character
Oh
Whatever hooks then gives us a snippet of wheel building that essentially just reinforces what we've already learned from the text crawl
The Republic is in power yet
They are almost useless and the first order is about to wipe them off the face of the galaxy in one move
somehow their Senate fleet
soldiers and allies are all
destroyed in this one shot from the first order and as a result of this destruction the first order believe the
Galaxy will bow to them as opposed to the more likely assessment that it will rally the galaxy
Against them as far as we're aware
The first order is relatively unknown as a faction and they've just committed the most famous war crime in the history of this universe
Especially considering that once we reach the end of this story. Their weapon is obliterated
plenty of systems would surely
underestimate their power
Or their limits and attempt to join forces to crush them kind of like how they do in the final film in the trilogy
Despite the fact that the first order is at the height of their power at that point
Seriously, though what other factions are even out there?
Is anyone else going to want to take over the galaxy with the government being knocked out the Trade Federation?
Maybe about the Hutts maybe the Kaminoans want to take a shot. Will the casino people of Kanto bite consider a
Revolution with the people in power being so weak for all I know many of those factions might be gone
Plenty more might have replaced them
But the problem here is that the film wants us to care about this
monumental move by the first order firing a hole right through the
Galaxy and killing the universal leaders in one shot without letting us know what it means
Surely this laser isn't traveling faster than light and it reaches the hosnian system in less than a minute from firing
Also, the star killer base eats Suns which should surely destroy the system
it's doing that too as well as screwing itself up in terms of gravitational pull and any
explanation they have for this will likely break any and all laws of physics one could conceive of
Look if it's giving me a headache I picture an expert in this field losing their mind entirely in terms of the universe
However, we don't know what anyone was doing or what anyone else will do now that this has been done
I mean, we don't know what anyone can do about it
we don't know what the Republic was before being destroyed and we barely
Understand the first order as it is these pieces of information would generate what we might refer to as willed building stakes without them
What do we have to lose or gain as an audience? What do these actions mean to the world?
What would be lost because this is an extreme amount of death and Disney has found a way for me to be
Apathetic about it. It's kind of unreal Disney star wars films have reduced the world
So significantly that it no longer feels like a universe of systems at all
It feels like one system with very few planets and we just lost half of them. That should be significant yet here
We are as shown by the film
the Republic is wiped out as a result of the destruction of five planets a
Single system if we forget for a second that planets being that close to each other is utterly nonsensical
We can focus on the fundamental weakness that is present for this galactic government
Why did the first-order go to the trouble of building the Starkiller base?
Can you imagine the amount of money work time and talents that went into this thing when they could have poured all of their resources?
into overthrowing the Republic at any point just convert the energy manpower and
materials for the stationary planet weapon into hundreds of fleets you could easily sweep through the galaxy
I guess Palpatine had the right idea the whole time
Also preventing any knowledge of this base from slipping out during all levels of production seems downright impossible
And why destroy planets you can subjugate and what is this planet gun going to do once it's fired on the target just sit there
Forever can it actually move. Can it use hyperdrive? Is it only a symbol of fear now?
Well, no cuz you set it up to fire again soon enough
Look why couldn't you achieve fear and domination of the galaxy with thousands of ships instead of the planet laser
Oh well by the end of this trilogy
Neither of those are very scary at all destroying a fleet or a giant death ball is easy these days regardless
It's a major expenditure for completing a task that could be done in so many simpler and cheaper ways though
I suppose I have accidentally highlighted and should further acknowledge the first orders fleet
Including dreadnought ships that can raise portions of planets from orbit
But they don't get used in the force awakens' despite the desperate need for them
It's almost as if don't exist at this point, despite the last Jedi being set seemingly hours later
There is an argument in relation to this being the cleanest way to
Obliterate the Republic and that's why the first order used this tactic
But that logic is reliant on them not being found from the beginning to the end of production
Which is ridiculous and it means that this thing is going to sit back and gather dust after the Republic is taken down
Which is quite the move for something that would have been so immensely taxing to create and to maintain
Besides as we saw they were sitting ducks thanks to this theoretically clean plan
They lose Starkiller quite quickly as for the argument that this is the cheapest way to get rid of the republic
not only would it be cheaper overall to just mass-produce the dreadnaughts and an army of fighters compared to creating a
Planet-sized base that can absorb sun's the Starkiller's destruction doesn't seem to cripple the resources of the first order whatsoever
It is such a nonentity that they forgot to even mention it in the second film despite taking place right next to each other
overall
So little thought went into the creation of this thing beyond
Concept that I can't imagine anyone thinking it was a good idea in the writing room
They just wanted bigger and thus better the irony is that bigger being better was foolishly
Translated to the audience immediately and it only served to yank them out of the narrative as it
Purported to be more threatening than the death star of a new hope but the Empire had a good reason to launch their death star
After 20 years of their government tooling through red tape and bureaucracy
To get their policies in place and rule over the galaxy with finality
The Empire still didn't have unlimited power
completing the Death Star while dissolving the Senate created a state of no discussion debate or
Reasoning the law is as the Emperor commands and for the most part the systems would fall in line
but now there is no chance of revolt when the ruling powers have this at their
Disposal which is why they hurried to create the second one to get that
Stranglehold back once that was destroyed and the ruling sith were dead. The Empire could never exist as it once was
Their reach exceeded their grasp. The Death Star was a symbol of fear to silence the galaxy while here
It's almost a party trick to make the audience say oh well
Remember the Deathstar the first order don't need a symbol of fear to further persuade
the system's under their government to fall in line because they don't have a government the whole thing stinks of
Recreation without the effort to once again bind it to the narrative and speaking of Starkiller base
It would seem that they have taken the name for their money printing monstrosity from the protagonist in the 2008 video game the Force Unleashed
An entertaining and relatively beloved Side Story for Star Wars. That was Dee canonized by Disney
I'm sure that doesn't annoy everyone who ever enjoyed that game. You guys remember star killer
Get the chance
I wonder what he has to say about the sequel trilogy
Last Jedi just to me felt like a movie made by a guy who hadn't quite done his homework
He didn't for me didn't make a compelling argument why Luke?
Wouldn't go and help his sister you
know or or if indeed Luke is hiding out on that island because he feels so badly for
How he handled kylo Ren then why is Luke trash-talking? Kylo Ren at the end of the movie
It's just seems like well, which is it
Are you do you feel bad that you that you hurt this boy or you're gonna trash talking?
You don't even you would imagine that he would arrive at that fight and go god Ben. I'm so sorry
Ben I'm side the whole time. I'm so sorry not. Yeah, whatever a see around Kade
Why is he trying what I
Don't think he did his Star Wars homework, but you don't owe me anything in terms of not not the details or the spaceships
I'm talking about like the themes. You know what it's about. You know what the characters are about
Yeah, pretty much the most significant failures of tlj
And well this whole trilogy is a marked misunderstanding of character and the thematic choices being so utterly
Unsuitable for the context while being brashley bungled in delivery
Tlj aging like vomit. Anyway, the hosnian system has now been destroyed
The Republic is no more
The scene is so abrupt and lacking context that they may as well have written the opening crawl to simply say Luke
Skywalker has vanished the Republic has been destroyed by the first order. Also, there's a map
Okay, here's the movie perhaps in some kind of cruel. Irony
It would have been less jarring for the will building if they had done it that way that's where we're at folks
Oh, and before we close on this scene giving the troopers a speech as if to rally them is very striking within the film
No doubt solidifying the troopers as the villainous army
But it's a very strange choice when we've established that it's not at all necessary. The troopers are conditioned and programmed from birth
So what is this speech for is it for the audience? I wonder because that's pretty lame in order to reach your
Visual maybe it's for any potential Finn's out there who are shaken in their belief of the first order though?
I doubt this kind of speech would convince those people to be loyal. It might just have the opposite effect
Actually, I suppose we can wave this off as Huck's being incompetent
The final thing worth mentioning here is the realization that the planets are destroyed in proximity of our heroes. Look how close they are
If that system is so far away that they had to make a pit stop for a ship
Then this can't happen. Some people have said, you know, that's not how space works
You wouldn't see that light from a different star system. And to those people I say you are absolutely right
the force awakens is not a science lesson and that
ladies and gentlemen is what it sounds like when you've given up on your script in favor of creating an
Experience that you hope people will have you should be more concerned with
creating art that is emotionally resonant than something that is like
intellectually satisfying the mistake that both JJ and just right to make is assuming that an error like this is
Ignored in favor of an emotional payoff when that is precisely the opposite for so many people
Let me ask you this. How many people have said?
Wow, I was taken out of that scene because of how scientifically accurate it was or I couldn't get immersed
It made too much sense
What I mean to say by this is that when you have things that function as they do in reality or in establish
Universal rules they will very rarely ruin someone's emotional investment. But if you flip that around
How many more people will be sucked right out in terms of a pragmatic choice?
I would side with making your strip to make sense. And hey, it'll also provide you with a more coherent story
So why not? But yeah, subjectively you run the gambit of either providing confusion or shock and or objectively
That's just a straight-up admitted mistake because you couldn't be bothered to work. Just a little bit harder. Tell me mr
Abrams if we take your idea to its logical end point then why are there rules at all? Why are there physics?
Why do we have any scenes in which characters explain how something works?
Why do we tend to stick to these things?
If it doesn't matter the answer
Of course is that you like rules and you will stick to rules because everyone typically likes rules because they help everyone understand
Just what in the world is going on
But that only lasts as long as they don't get in the way of a big shiny payoff
You desperately want to splash into your audience's faces
logic goes from being a helpful friend to a
Roadblock and suddenly writers feel compelled to get it out of their story as soon as possible at any cost
It's a sad cop-out but it presents a good point about writing disciplines in a large amount of bigger budget movies
This is the standard as long as you think someone might feel good about your work
You don't have to adhere to any form of measurement or rule, even the ones you created
This is something that myself and many other creators want to discourage because this sentiment is only sapping your potential you
Listening now as a possible aspiring writer are being presented this Golden Rule for your foundation
When there is a simple tweak to push you so much further
You can maintain the thought that people will feel good about your particular story your particular payoff your particular
Idea, because molding it to fit within your own world the rule set as presented can only help push that payoff to a wider audience
Instead of decrying criticism as surface level dribble that misses a greater theme or point of the piece
Let it increase your talents as a writer and doctor of your own scripts having something to say is the easy part
But molding and delivering that message carving it in
continuity and pushing every piece along sided while remembering where and why every element
Coexists is where the memory effort time and struggle come in. It's where the talent comes in
It's what separates the great when writers falter when they give up when they just want to see a big red laser
Streaming across the pale blue sky, what is their excuse? Of course? Wiccans is not a science lesson
Otherwise known as I want it this way leave me alone. That doesn't bother me at all. That doesn't bother me at all
well
I am happy for you As I am sure the many franchise pioneers are happy
witnessing their works burning month after month year after year
Happy seeing their achievements and cultural legacies being further represented by an indolent avaricious
uninspired rot coursing through
creativity like a jealous
cancer powered by the very idea that there is no such thing as a bad script and that perhaps we should award the
unsolicited and very much unwelcome effort alone regardless of the
Transparent calibre of focused tested slurry spilling onto that once celebrated and eminent screen
you
I think I think my advice for an aspiring screenwriter and and
Wouldn't be to
find your voice and by that I mean
Find the type of story you want to tell and how you want to tell it, you know find what's important to you
And stick to that like and that sounds really basic but by that
I mean don't give in to the temptation of shaping yourself around some sort of perception of
What the market wants or what?
Or what people you know out there wants or god forbid what critics want or what have you?
You know what anybody wants but but you really find your thing find what makes your voice unique
and stick to your guns because in the short term it's going to seem like that's what's
That's what's holding you back it's going to seem like that's what's making it difficult to break in in the long term though
That's what's gonna make your voice unique and that's what's going to pop you up above the crowd and and get you
Get you noticed
So, I'm sure you're wondering how does this space laser being seen affect anything on a craft level
It's surely no more harmful than sound in space. Right? Well not really side note
I will be showing footage of the Republic from the prequels since I hate showing you guys this clip over and over again
But the thing is Disney Wars hasn't left me much of a choice when it comes to the Republic
anyway
this light means that Han flew rey and finn to a closeby planet with the intention of getting a
Transport that could take them to layer in the resistance when he could have flown them there himself
He probably would have arrived in that timeline before they even sat down with mars
You see by going to the republic han would get easy access to strong transports
Maybe even supporting troops and resources in general to assist the delivery
And of course a direct communication with Leia considering that the Republic's support the resistance
Who knows maybe they could even conceal the scanning method that's picking up the Falcon
Of course
You can't mute scanning entirely in the sense of a radar picking up moving objects as we've seen in the previous
Films the idea that you can find and follow them from all corners of the universe
Sounds pretty new and you would require a unique signature rather than simply mass
Meaning that very frequency could theoretically be scrubbed do that
Ultimately Han is still an ally of the resistance. He is accepted there and he's considered useful. So logically speaking
There is no reason he wouldn't have tried this it was an extremely
Stupid move and it's frustrating to think about since this light in the sky isn't even required to think
It's possible for Han to get to the Republic it is the center for all discussion for the government of the galaxy
Just go there
and
seriously at this point how in the world would someone categorize this as a
nitpick either they would have gotten there and out before the first order destroyed the system and thus they wouldn't need to save Rey and
The map would be safely delivered which changes the plot completely on the other hand
They would have been there when it was destroyed and I don't think I need to explain how that would affect the plot
Which means the plot and character writing here have to take major hits all for a visual
What one may see is a nitpick in the sky is in reality quite the perplexing blunder, of course
It's understandable that the writers wanted the beam and destruction to be visible to our heroes. They wanted an epic
celestial
Superficial fireworks display, but there's no consideration of the knock-on effect
Is there any reason not to go to the Republic? I'm actually starting to think it's a downright missed opportunity
What if the first order tracks them to the capital Republic planets Oh No
Maybe we would have a wall between the Republic and the first order especially since this film has tried so hard
to obfuscate that as well maybe if I'm giving the maximum
Benefit of the doubt Hahn doesn't want to go there because he's wanted by the Republic
Well, that would be a sad realization for the incompetence of Hahn
But he could still deliver rey finn and bb-8 in an escape pod. So that's no problem either
The sad fact is that we've seen efforts to plug up the writing in the film already
so I assumed that this was just a flaw they came across as evidenced by JJ and all he said was
Of course Wiccans is not a science lesson. Just
Imagine how much they use this excuse in production
The really funny thing is that you can actually look for an explanation of this scene in the wikipedia pages
They talk about how the energy from the base opened up sub hyperspace rips
Spilling the light across the galaxy allowing everyone to see it as if it were closed look
First of all, not only does JJ have no idea this explanation exists despite being the lead writer
But third-party explanations have no relevance to this assessment besides that explanation opens up a whole load of other questions
Like again physics just know still it's amusing to see how far fans will go on behalf of writers like these
Since the original trilogy we've sent probes to lots of the planets in our solar
system and we've discovered hundreds of new extrasolar planets that any
Thing we've learned from science make its way into the design of planets in this movie
Yeah, we noticed like how this planet is apparently frozen solid despite being in close proximity to a rather angry star
But whatever. It's not a science lesson. Anyway, if it approaches han and chewie
Whoo. Yeah, Chewie was on the Falcon sorting out repairs and now he's here. I don't know why they bothered with this switcheroo
Maybe he has a deleted scene on the Falcon where he repairs stuff. I don't know
It's just the kind of editing that reminds me of something regardless. Finn says this
First order they've done it
Thanks to this line and later
confirmation that finn worked on the base that we shall get to it is
Confirmed that finn knew about this weapon and the fact that they were going to fire on the republic or the resistance
since who else are they going to fire at before the ruling government or the faction created to directly oppose them and
Despite all of this finn didn't tell anyone
I think the most egregious element would be the fact that he didn't tell Hans solo
This is a rebellion general
according to Finn's own loose knowledge you are letting
Information that will lead to the destruction of his faction his loved ones and possibly himself fall by the wayside
Completely all because what you forgot doesn't that sound familiar isn't Finn supposed to be desperately interested in harm reduction
Not to mention that assuming star killers as well kept a secret as the film wants us to believe
Choosing to say that in this moment will now reveal exactly who you are
but of course Hahn doesn't pick up on it or care, which means
not having told him earlier on would have had no negative effect for Finn nor was Finn particularly worried about
Sharing it and don't get me wrong
It's not to say that Finn telling Hahn about this would have saved the planets for certain
but he didn't even try and who knows what could have happened if the Republic were made aware of
Starkiller base around the time Finn first met Poe or Han I can't tell you how much of a
Complicated mess the past ten minutes of this film have been if you haven't already noticed
We've spent a rather enormous time ironing it out
But this is what happens when you slow content down when you listen to everything. That's said
Done. And yes
this format applies to good old YouTube videos as fans of every frame a pause may already be aware of and you don't need to
know any special moves to win things like
Parrying and using your EXO tax or optional that means this pairing is not optional in many circumstances in this game. You'll get
Yeah, the ghost train you have to parry to move the trolley isn't the final boss to Pettit like entirely built around parrying the one
Before Satan the guy with the is it that dice head or whatever. Yeah, king dice
Now I know there are some people who think that when you slow down any kind of media
You will always reveal issues that all stories are
Ultimately, no more or less flawed than any other that mindset is a real shame
It helps inform the poisonous attitude. I was alluding to not ten minutes ago
There are so many videos out there already that tear screen plays apart to prove how well-written they actually are in the details
The force awakens under a critical eye has moments of success
Pieces here and there where it shines we've been through several of those in this series already, but it is true
You can apply this process to a myriad of stories and come out feeling low about the state of storytelling overall
You may feel you've been tricked by bright lights or a frenzied pace
But you need to remember that the opposite is just as possible depending on the content you can end up
Appreciating the writing more than you would have realized
After a first watch and you are more than able to find a new source of meaning within it to get started you simply need
To draw a line between what it's making you feel and what it is despite
these aspects
Absolutely being capable of informing one another they are very different
Both vary in value from person to person but mixing them together is precisely what makes so many conversations
So confusing you are often stuck at the door of the exchange because each speaker hasn't made it clear
what will be discussed it obviously doesn't stop there nor is it really that simple but it's a great start and in no time you
Will find plenty of content that can show how much this craft has to offer after the fights over
Critias picks up Poseidon and beats the living out of him
His bare hands as the tip spins around the action and first person then Kratos proceeds to grab him like a little clown boy
Forever anyway coming back we are with rey and bb-8 Rey tells the droid that she is leaving and I still don't understand where she
Thinks she's going in order to leave the planet just gonna traverse the forests until something pops up in terms of a spaceship I guess
Well considering her luck factor. I wouldn't be surprised if that happened
But I think we all realized that she's not specifying a location because she doesn't have one
She's just supposed to be captured regardless as ray tells bb-8 to go back. She notices the first order have invaded
Thanks to the informant from earlier. Unfortunately, the resistance have not yet arrived to counter them unlucky
I suppose the first order was simply closer to tak Adana
so we cut to a
Rushing Maz Kanata who provides Anakin's like to say but to Finn and Han as if it is more important than anything right now
She says that it's been locked away and that she's had it for ages
So why in the world didn't she give it back to the people that Luke is aligned with before now
especially considering she is their ally and why do you consider locked away to be a door that opens with all the force of a
Dying fart and a chest, that's one curious look away from being stolen
I really don't understand any of this Mars says that they need to find Rey and hands the lightsaber to Finn
So I guess she's desperate for Rey to find Luke with the lightsaber because it's important that he gets it
Okay, who knows what Maz is taken this even is unless the plot demands that she send a Code Breaker in her place
She seems to care more about Rey getting Anakin's lightsaber than her own life or here 1,000 year Cantina
1000 years she's been around and passionate aligned with the goodies for as much as
1000 years and I guess we've just never come across it before it's almost like they made her old to have reason for her immense
wisdom despite that simply raising more questions
Why does Mars really care about any of this? Who is she?
Why does she have these answers do we get even a throwaway line to explain any of this?
Why is it that she's desperate for ray to witness this?
Mars comes across as a character built to foreshadow incredible coming events
Which is completely deflated by what we end up getting
Now looking back many will wonder what the point of this character is and what she was thinking the whole time
perhaps episode 9 will hold the key to her in-depth
fascinating personal journey
It doesn't Mars makes sure that they get the lightsaber then realizes the first order have arrived which is partially Hans fault
But we'll get to that we see that Rey has now decided to head back to the cantina rather than escape only she spots some
Stormtroopers and nails three of them in foreshots collectively from her pistol at a rather long range
This would be another significant addition to her abilities
pistol shooting with shocking
Accuracy, if we accept the inevitable comparison, it took Princess Leia much longer to actually hurt the enemies
she was aiming for this is despite having the utmost confidence with a weapon of longer range and
control than raised on top of being at closer range with more time to shoot and a cluster of enemies that had no
intention of killing her
Staggering, isn't it? Not to mention how long it often takes han and luke to nail shots?
the thing is this information seems petty to many people and they end up reacting as many people reasonably do what's the
Problem. She shot some bad guys. Why do you need to be angry over that just enjoy the film?
Well, let me explain with how much we don't know about Rey
It is more and more puzzling to keep adding abilities to her in the time we have rather than characteristics
we still don't have a clear motivation for her in regards to the Battle of light and dark or first-order and
resistance as a result these
abilities rather than her character are fast becoming her story her aptitude for almost everything is
astonishing and with
subconsciously being fed that whatever reveals and growth we will get for her are going to be directly tied to all of these moments since
They fill up a majority of her screen time. This is what the character Rey is all about
Not only does it not fit with what we know of the universe
The story is focusing on it taking a step back here
Look at what we've just got ace aiming and shooting when it's not something we would ever expect for her considering the life
We've been shown nor will we see her make much use of it at all in the future?
She is going to be the force user of our new characters
So establishing an impressive shooting skill for no other reason than batting down stormtroopers in this scene is strange
But explainable by looking at the matter of the film
which is something we will do in the
Potentially distant future what I'm getting at as a solution here is that we should see thin shooting and shooting
Impressively like we do here
Or herewith as a piloting job and a job for a blaster
So the characters best suited to these jobs take them working together to achieve something. Oh, that's a deleted scene
Never mind
When it comes to other character cases relative
Sharpshooting would be a decent addition because it's an ability on top of their established positions or struggle that doesn't change anything
Significantly in the wider story but for a the almost blank slate
Development is being wasted by having more events like this take up a screen time rather than more of this or this or this
it's not the audience's fault for being concerned about these moments in terms of consistency and
Character when the story is so obsessed with presenting them and that's not a trend that stops with this one film
It seems rather deliberate and for those in the audience who are wondering how Rey was spotted here
Well, there was a stormtrooper that just so happened to be standing in the middle of the forest looking around
He isn't a part of a squad
He's not attacking the cantina all the people that are likely fleeing from it
And he doesn't know to look for Rey in this area yet. The writers essentially dropped him here for Rey to shoot
I wonder why well, give me 63 seconds on that. Anyway, we cut to the entrance of maz
Kanata's cantina as kylo walks through it
It's been bulldozed to the point of resembling a well-maintained collection of rubble Wow. They work fast
Wait, wasn't this place filled with random cantina goers?
some of them were very loyal to the first order who were the
Stormtroopers even fighting in this scene before Han Chewie and fin show up and why seems a tad unethical or just plain stupid?
Like look at this guy in the middle of the fight. You're shown him for about a split second
Who is this person? He has a gun. He's in the thick of it. And this is before the Republic get here
Is he fighting with Han is he his own dude? Do the first-order care about him. Does Mars care about him?
Look, there's another one right there. Who's this guy?
So many it just comes down for what seems like no reason who knows how many people are dead now
In fact when they were destroying that structure, was there any concern about killing ray?
You know the girl he wants to kidnap
Luckily for him a storm trooper then informs wren that the Droid and the girl were spotted in the woods
That is why Ray shot those troopers we needed her to be spotted so that kylo could go after her himself
Cutting back to Ray she tells bb-8 to run off in a random direction while she fights off the troopers again
Not something we thought she could do but we need her to be captured and we need bb-8 to escape with the resistance
So writing-wise, we're not burning any of this a lot of it simply has to happen this way though
It is very altruistic of her essentially giving up her own life for a cause
We're not even sure she's invested in especially when she could have escaped with bb-8 but never mind
We then see Han Solo pull off a triple kill, which is fine
But the third is a 180 noscope for the sole reason of looking flashy
This compounds the issue of style over substance in this film
Especially when they've already shown that Han is much more incompetent than he ever used to be in his prime
He fired his pistol with the limits of being a man who had to aim, and he was still missing consistently
But here he even looks a little bit confused by his own shot. Like he doesn't really know what he just did
This is especially awkward because the only defense is that he's going by sound the blasters of the enemies for example
Something Finn is using not moments later be pretty awkward if that were Finn right there
the sad fact is that there are plenty of flashy moves you can have for a grounded pistol expert without turning them into a
magical creature at this point in the film
It's becoming clear that character is left by the wayside and we will be focusing on the flashy instead
I mean what did people love about Han Solo? Well, it was this right. This was the reason people liked him
Not stuff like this
Nope we love the character because we wanted to see him shooting those evil troopers personally. I just hated scenes like this Scott
Like the sound of her oh and this scene this was particularly boring, she's the fastest ship in the fleet
No, I know it to me she won't get a scratch
All right, I got your promise not a scratch to get going you pirate
What do you think mr. Abrams this felt incredibly classic Han Solo this moment
Well that explains just about everything doesn't it Han Solo is the one who does the peep you okay? You can probably catch that
I'm not happy with how Han has been handled in this story, but there will be a better time to approach it
So please be patient we will get to everything eventually
Nothing escapes the law
So Finn gets out of the basement and Mars tells him that rey and bb-8
Need him only for him to demand that he needs a weapon. So mars coaxes him to ignite Anakin's lightsaber and begin his search
Didn't Finn get a blaster from Han that he was carrying around for a few scenes, but we come here and it's gone
It's almost as if there was a deleted scene in which Finn lost that
Blaster and they hoped that the audience would forget about it. But that's not the case Shirley. Oh
Dear did you guys love how the trooper said Snoke and Hans said smoke? That's some great
Wordplay I can see why you would want to cut the scene jokes
Sometimes don't land very well or perhaps there was a distinct lack of time available. But now we have a gap in continuity
You're kind of supposed to care about that. I think it's clear that Finn needed to have his lightsaber moment
So they absolutely had to take his gun away
Finn isn't going to use a sword before a gun when pitted against other gun wielding stormtroopers
Now is he in fact if he had no choice and decided to use this lightsaber?
It really could make for a pretty strong moment
But they cut the scene that might have supported such a payoff and they didn't account for it at all meaning
We have a good old-fashioned continuity issue in the editing subcategory
Like so many in tlj
Speaking of do you guys remember the scene where Finn tells DJ that he was wrong once his deal with the first-order is revealed
Well, apparently a different line was in the film and I suppose it is now a deleted scene
This is not the line that row this is Benicio del Toro special originally
I had some dumb movie line like, you know, yeah, I'm wrong and rich or something and he's like
I think you should just say maybe it was like yes. Well, can you imagine him saying that to Finn?
Wrong and rich, he just needs to cackle after wood in the scene is complete though
It is interesting that ryan has the full sight to remove some of his oafish and clunky dialogue
It's a shame that so much still made it in
You think that I came to the most unfindable place in the galaxy for no reason at all?
That's on top of the fact that he would have held the decision to cut the scene in which Luke mourned Hans death
Oh that might be news to some of you who Ryan cut this scene out of the film
Yeah, you could have kept just 5 seconds of that and you would still have the substance of the moment
And of course, you're all asking where in the world could we have cut 5 or 10 seconds out of the movie?
Well, I have absolutely no idea. These scenes are just so important
I suppose this is just a small rant within my project, but I don't get it
I don't understand so many of his choices as a storyteller
Especially with people talking about emotional resonance so much you guys
Really really should check out that documentary the director and the Jedi it's a large chronicle of what took place on set and reveals
So much about the horrors of production for certain people
anyway
The director of this documentary would obviously have had his own equipment to record the entirety of the experience
meaning that they got to choose what to keep from the many things that occurred on set and since we're talking about deleted scenes how
About we look at something that director for the documentary kept in his project. That was not seen in the last Jedi
I assume you all remember the moment where Luke and Leia connect with each other in tlj
This is the vision that Ryan chose for the film and it's one of the very few moments with some substance
It is a strong scene thanks to Carrie and marks performances along with the history they share that is in no path
Thanks to the writing of the last Jedi but look at what wasn't used in the final. I know what you're going to say
It's nice that way see I just
How about hope I
Don't find yourselves gone stunning beautiful packed with emotion Carrie Fisher absolutely nailing it
This is what I imagine a general may feel like after she's lost her resistance
She has to face the deaths of those. She fought for her entire life
While trying to accept the fate of his son and it didn't make it to the final vision
Why in the world would anyone remove takes like this and own that decision as flawless?
Was there any of the criticisms that you read that you may feel it's now kind of fair
No, no, like many of the phrase not akin to like you told greats in the video essayist community
I oft used quotations from prolific in all and expel its thinkers of the modern grundle pastiche in
Conjunction with the past aging thorium's we so clearly see it helps to really show just how valuable
Letters are and how they translate today in relation to what we've been over and what we've been over prior
I offer an annus peptic explanation for the creatives that exists behind the last Jedi and the force awakens through yet another
incredible underrated and compunctious philosopher Hollywood movie star Richard Evans
Stupid people tend to overvalue their own abilities because they are too stupid to realize they don't have those abilities
Well said anyway, I want to refocus on Martha's work and shelter being reduced to rubble
She knew what Han had brought and Han knew that he could have been tracked Finn pointed out that they may have been spotted in
The cantina from the moment they arrived therefore in one way or another with full knowledge
Han Solo brought the storm of the first order to Mars
Destroying everything she had and we get nothing from her no complaints or acknowledgement about the entire situation
Whatsoever. This is because she is not a character
She is another plot device though, really a prop to be more dismissive Mars provides information alone
and she will reappear to do so when required she has no feelings or
attachments to anything which is sad when thinking about how the whole purpose of this prop is to recreate Yoda a
Character whose scenes were built around his perspective on the force his morality and his history
Do you guys remember what happened when Luke merely insulted Yoda's home rather than destroying it. I want my lamp back
I'm gonna needed to get out of this slimy mud hole
That line tells you more about him than we ever learn about Mars
The clue should have been in that Yoda became hugely impactful in his scenes
Once we knew what his history was and how he fit into this world
This was a common pattern with the last Jedi as well as the force awakens the repurposing of old ideas
Into sloppy and downright Hollow clones, but how did this happen?
well
I imagine the goal behind the materials characters and elements in the old films were built from the ground up
the world was in mind to provide something that people could see matching the
Environment or existing as a result of what we knew has happened in this world. The creative process was free to expand and explore
comparatively the idea behind much of the new films seems to be how do we get that thing that everybody loved back but also make
It sort of new looking this attitude starts to rot
all of what binds the narrative together making it seem like a show instead of a world a corpse being
puppeted around for the express purpose of squeezing dollars out of the audience
For some that alone shatters the fantasy but others need a little bit more coming back
We are shown for the second time that Han has fired through his bow caster in the film and it makes for some light-hearted dialogue
I
Like this thing this now brings up the obvious question of how in the world
Wouldn't harm know about this already at the very least
He should be aware of the power behind it from seeing it fire over and over again
And he fired it for the first time not a half hour ago only to do it again
Now this is absolutely a nitpick but it is indicative of a larger issue the concern to create a new content with the old
resources and a limited understanding
Of them to boot it is as though they were working with a still frame of the OT and that's where they got their information
About the characters. What does the hairy one have looks like some kind of weapon
How about the other guy picks it off him and has some fun using it. He can be like, oh wow
This is a neat gun should be a good laugh
It comes across as rather shallow, especially compared to comedy that is generated through an attention to history and character traits
No hard feelings Point Break. You got a mean swing
Strongest Avenger
Point Break
Aside from all that the impressive and devastating power of the voc aster is established through harm shot earlier and the one here
We are going to remember those
Can you imagine why?
also
I find it funny that my praise of the film for refusing to apply
complete plot armor to the characters with the example game
Chewie is now being made redundant for a fight scene Chewbacca's ability to fire
The bow caster is seemingly unaffected by his arm having to be in a sling not moments ago
I
Suppose it was just a flesh wound a quick change can give you Hans
Switching weapons with Chewie because the bow caster was too heavy for the wound
He sustained we could then have a neat moment with them both appreciating the other's style instead
They seemed to have forgotten there was even an injury until much later. Anyway, going back to Finn
He runs into a trooper during the battle and stabs him with his newly acquired lightsaber
But before we can acclimate to that he happens to bump into a second trooper one that has a very odd set of equipment
This trooper comes with a blaster a shield and a space stun baton unlike anything. We've seen from the first-order
Previously and in future despite previous battles being perfect for them hoo boy
What could you possibly have a problem with here? The better question is what makes sense here. Let's first go with the blaster
Why drop that when you could have unloaded it into Finn?
Of course the counter is that Finn can deflect bolts with the saber
But as we see the trooper recognizes Finn as the guy who betrayed the first order about a half day ago
So he knows that Finn has no idea how to use her lightsaber and he could obviously just aim for the legs
But he doesn't even try he immediately disarms himself in favor of gaining a disadvantage strange choice
But there we are more importantly though. What's with the shield?
I'm sure many people would justify its existence by saying the armor is actually
Uniform and that we shouldn't be concerned with it being ineffective against blasters or general damage. This was always a questionable explanation
But now I suppose it's canon since they have gear for troopers who actually want to defend themselves
We can see that this is a relatively thin shield and a shield is self-explanatory
We naturally assume it blocks common damage like a blaster fire. You can add a stretch mix of armor with uniform
I understand that but not a shield, which means we now have to ask about a particularly crazy idea
What if you make the uniform for the troopers out of the material you used for this shield?
They might be better off kind of like how you did with plasma though
it's not like that made her more effective in this little moment, which
It's kind of their our own Maj to the moment in Back to the Future 2 or he comes up on the delorean
steal from the best
Don't be proud of that Ryan. In this case. I think it has nothing to do with the will building on the stormtroopers
I think he has a shield solely to explain the baton
The fact is that the baton would be typical as a crowd control
Tool and it's often found alongside a shield in real life. And so
You've got to have your sci-fi shield now, too
If you want the primary device to block a lightsaber while also being a relatively reasonable tool for a random
Stormtrooper to have even if it brings into question much of what we understand about this factions armor
Just don't think about it
A force awakens is not a science lesson good things that the overall concept of a crowd control trooper makes a nice chunk of sense
Along with sand troopers and snow troopers different scenarios require different approaches
but why in the world would there be a singular crowd control unit here and never again and
Finn happened to bump right into him when all
Kinds of other troopers are around it's almost as if that's an extremely weak excuse to have an extended
one-on-one battle with someone who can deflect a lightsaber within reason they even have the trooper call out traitor to make this seem a little
More dramatic as a showdown, but we've never met this guy before
During the fight the guy successfully slams Finn to the ground but being a stun baton
It doesn't do much damage despite being able to lock in with a lightsaber
Man should have kept that blaster actually if you think about it
It's pretty lucky that this weapon is able to deflect a lightsaber
Considering the Jedi are a myth at best. The only person seen by these troopers with a lightsaber is their own boss and
99% of your typical troopers don't have this setup
But yes
Finn's
Second opponent after he began to use this weapon happen to be the one trooper in the first order who was able to defend themselves
Against it because that's how you write a screenplay
Anyway moments before the trooper is seemingly about to kill Finn
He is blown out by Han Solo from once again firing the bo castor powerful stuff
I really think we should remember this
especially this
You know what let's talk about it a lot of people do why wasn't this trooper traded out for captain phasma
You could have had a back and forth speech where she belittles him and references his inadequacy and nature as a deficient storm trooper
They then get to fight phasma winds and she's knocked out by hon for Finn to have a showdown with her at another time
It's simple yet effective because as it stands Finn and phasma's story is extremely thin
so why waste this easy opportunity probably because there was no plan and
Extremely little redrafting though
I do appreciate the following moment because seeing Finn about to be murdered while fighting storm troopers is more than enough to make han and
Chewie, trust him despite being an ex trooper himself
Han is letting him know that he still doesn't believe the lie
But he's willing to believe he's not with the first order even if his motivation is essentially just Rey at this point
This whole scene is weird for other reasons though
there is a strange amount of troopers that don't exist until the boss battle portion is over or I
Guess to be more accurate they exist but they do nothing as the fight with Finn begins look in the background
There's a whole selection here that apparently get lost
Look how close they're getting but they still don't help their guy out. Like they do eventually but it takes them ages
Look at this guy right here attack Finn. He's right there. Your buddy needs help
No, what are you doing Oh
Unfortunately, they are then captured and shuffled along until there is a resistance counter-attack led by Poe, Dameron
Yes
Poe Dameron is back and we're going to talk all about that
But not until next time our heroes are released Finn finds himself a blaster and we get to see him score a few good shots
with it
Which is finally done in a smooth simplistic character accurate way then something interesting
Happens Poe Dameron destroys ten different tie fighters as well as killing three stormtroopers over the course of 15
seconds some feel that this move was far too overpowered when I would argue that the film has told us and
maintained that Poe's skill in piloting is
Nominal I had no idea. We had the best pilot in the resistance combo
He is the best I do see a point though
This is extremely rare and downright godlike for a pilot in this universe at least compared to what we've seen before
Being the best doesn't mean you should be able to achieve something like this when it comes to the Disney trilogy
There is a sense of spectacle at the sacrifice of character a lot
No one will care about any kind of you know
Explosion or ship or animal if there's no humanity behind it?
JJ has a penchant for cranking things up. Poe can't just kill a couple
It's got to be ten and who knows how many it will become when JJ is trying to up himself
Don't get me wrong
This is something I think works great when it's balanced correctly you of course get the most powerful force users the best
lightsaber combatants the most intuitive fighters the most accurate blaster users the quickest and
deadliest pilots the most creative mechanics and the greatest leaders people with strengths and
Weaknesses failing in situations where they should and succeeding in situations where they should I mean to be fair
Postal couldn't pull off a simultaneous triple kill like the actual greatest pilot in the resistance
Speaking of which Ray is found by kylo, and he freezes her with the force
It's a kind of cool-looking move complete with spooky sounds
The victim is stuck in what looks like a trance while having full control over their eyes
Interesting use of the force matches what we know and yet seems kinda new though
It does imply a strong level of power in Kyllo once again, and so he asks her where the Droid is
Now as I said previously
It is revealed that the only reason the Wright has had her run off into the forest is to have kylo capture her
Away from Han Chewie and Finn because of course they wouldn't let this happen only
Kylo
Now knows that Rey has seen the piece of the map and is convinced that they only need that this move
makes no sense
Your goal is to find the droids so that you can get to Skywalker on top of that and they made this very clear
Snoke wants to prevent bb-8 from reaching the resistance in order to stop the Jedi from rising again
This is something that kylo completely forgets about for no reason he could bring in more
Troopers more fighters and take the planet securing the Droid and preventing the resistance from achieving their goal
But he instead takes Rey back to his ship for interrogation in the hopes that she has what he needs
We are going to get to that nonsense in a bit
But for now kylo believes that Rey has the information required to find Luke Skywalker the man he despises
Kylo should be interrogating Rey right now like he did with Poe while piling more troops into the planet to overthrow the piddling
Resistance remember even in the final battle the resistance have very few ships by comparison
so instead he's going to take Rey all the way back to his ship and then try to make up for that obvious mistake once
Huck's pointed out for him a mistake that allows the map to reach the resistance this whole trilogy might have looked a little bit different
If not for that and he's focusing just on her and clearly you think well
He must be able to just extract the information he wants now
But because he's taking her you get a sense that there might be something else going on here
Well, yeah, it didn't take him long with Poe and he already started it with Rey
They're in the middle of the forest
so there's no concern of
Interruption if he wanted to kidnap her so desperately because he senses that she's strong with the force then why not do both though?
I suppose it is consistent
Kyllo has a history of handling his prisoners in ways that makes no sense at all and aren't informed by his character whatsoever
Oh, I'm sorry people have started to equate emotional instability with stupidity
Now meaning we can explain each of hold Oh Huck's Mars and kylos
Actions if we just admit that they are stupid when the plot requires them to be like sure to an objective
omniscient viewer it would make logical sense for Admiral Hall Doh to tell Poe Dameron her plan and
Then there would be no conflict and no drama
Poe would never send Finn on a mission and Finn would never grow and Howe would never grow and there would be no story your
Job, as a writer is to solve problems that prevent you from having the payoffs you want
You're not supposed to give up and appeal to the idea that you had no choice
That's a terrible argument and you should feel bad though
If you combine this problem with ray running into the forest for no reason you realize there is a fix that solves both of these
arbitrary issues keep ray in the vicinity of the cantina have him fight alongside Han and Finn to give their
Relationships even more reason to be meaningful then have explosions and smoke grenades go off and get kylo to kidnap ray during the confusion
He wouldn't have time to
Interrogate her and he would want to run away to make sure he doesn't get hurt we can assume this is tied to the fact
That he doesn't really want to kill Han and you can explain the limited forces by saying he got there with a smaller faster squad
designed for scouting to enable the surprise attack
This is why the resistance show up a little later, but with a far stronger force instead
We are once again facing a complete mess of rioting and on top of all of this
Look how many forces were sent to takodana in search of the Droid bear in mind this results in a victory for the first-order
Thanks to a distress call
Weird how they had an entire star destroyer over jakku and they sent two
Fighters that time sight notes disney star wars have ruined star destroyers
They are the most
non-threatening
starship that ever
Existed they pop up all the time and know
He cares they have to invent ships that are bigger and better because every time Star Destroyers show up they get obliterated
In some way shape or form and they did it again in the rise of Skywalker
Do you guys remember when Star Destroyers were?
Scary also for those who are having trouble with my criticism of how they utilize their resources by comparison to the Empire
Contrasting this to a new hope wouldn't really be accurate or relevant
But this stuff always comes up when the Empire searched for r2d2, they weren't even aware
There was a droid in the ship until they landed and even then they had more troopers as a presence once they had
Targets the numbers grew despite needing to take care with assaulting a Hutt controlled system and our heroes ran in fear from an arising
horde of troopers only to end up fleeing with two Star Destroyers
On their tail the first order across the entire trilogy have never shown that kind of care
Initiative or intimidation outside of the totally confusing scene from the beginning
But even then those targets were random villages
Defenseless after a few moments not to mention during episode 4 Our Heroes used hyperspace to escape soon after being found
Finn and Rey didn't do that leaving the first order to hunt them down immediately
But they just don't they were caught by
multiple other factions and there are such things in this universe as scanning for the Falcon at great distances and
Hyperdrive trackers again scanning and tracking are two different things but hyperdrive tracking is not mentioned in the force awakens
Whatsoever. This all leads to the confusingly constructed scene
We're in now and it's down to adding more and more narrative
devices to push your plot while forgetting the established ones at the same time as
Refrigerating factions all characters at a whim and I now think it's a good time to address another
Argument that usually pops up in these discussions the OT was just as poorly written as the Disney Star Wars films
Good lord
No first by that logic
You are trying to defend a film as well written by saying another film has bad writing that doesn't work at all
This is very simply referred to as what about ISM this argument in its correct?
Format is meant to prove. Your opponent is a hypocrite
but even if true that dissolve the initial argument
Second sharing an element of bad writing in one project does not mean you have the same result as another project nor the same
Frequency nor impact there is very likely going to be a large amount of context that can change how the specific element is
Executed third the original trilogy has some great writing
It actually has a large amount of great writing and I look forward to covering the subject eventually
But these things take time so until then I will simply refer to the first and second points, though
it is worth saying that the insistence upon classifying these issues as irrelevant because they appear in other pieces of media is
Absurd we should work to criticize and later avoid them whether they appear in one or many
What about ISM never works and trying to tear the OT down to the sequel's level is only going to backfire
They literally don't know which direction is up. Anyway, the first order retreat and kylo successfully captures rey interestingly
They leave with a force that honestly seems as though it would have won the planet had they continued fighting and received
reinforcements yet
They decided to flee look how small the incoming resistance force is and again how small they are when they take on the Starkiller base
And let's not forget
He can simply pull the location of bb-8 out of rey he can then find it on the planet himself remind me
Was that a big concern or not?
smoke said capture the Droid if you can but destroy him if you must
Meaning do not let the resistance get a hold of that droid. Okay, then JJ on top of everything else
why did your character drop his interest in the Droid it will allow the resistance to now reach Luke then again, that's
Dependent on whether or not r2d2 wakes up, which is based on. What was it, right?
Nothing, nothing at all
This has been quite an adventure, hasn't it?
If you don't mind
I'm going to show some fan art on screen while I deliver this outro
We have discovered what could be called a treasure trove of failure in this selection of the force awakens?
I would happily refer to it as the turning point for the film in terms of these videos the praiseworthy
Elements are becoming thinner and thinner and the problems are stacking far too high ultimately
I'm sure you've noticed that this series is an almost retrospective for the sequel trilogy focusing more
So on tlj and TFA
Conversely my previous series on a movie a critique of the last Jedi was heavily focused on the last Jedi
Who'd have thought the eventual videos for the rise of Skywalker will very likely focus on that film with plenty of references
Outside of it as well
But I promise nothing if not a long video
For those of you who cannot stand how much time is spent waiting for these videos to be made
I do create some additional
Content with other Creators over on e fab you will have seen several highlights in this video alone Bruce Wayne's father. Who's just a
cartoonish dickhead punch a joker in the face
Blade hands on his son and almost in threatened to actually he'd started choking out for the death
he just let go because he realized what he was doing and then you
Suddenly see this man who assaulted your Butler and your son in the bathroom with you?
He says like yo, my dad don't lie to me
I do you actually shout sort of at one point and then he starts overtly
Laughing at him and obviously Thomas Wayne doesn't know that's a condition and upon re-watching something
I completely forgot after he punches him as he leaves the room
He says don't ever lay hands on my son ever again. Yeah, yeah
You know a lot of people like lie or incompetence, it's a lie, because you can't know J. Goddammit
Oh
Wow, he actually shows that clip. I
Want to change my vote to lie, okay
This is not your Ghostbusters movie and that's okay. It's time to let the children play
Why don't you add the creepy line
Alright well, let's check out why the mandalorian is genius. We'll see what we go
You've got the sad piano just just fret for
Dude what I want to get into the head of you you having made this so you went with black and white and piano is
It I'm assuming it's a tone setter. You want to try and be like this is to be taken seriously
There's a but I think it was more of how can I make this longer than five minutes?
I run a second channel called moolah and you can find many additional videos there in the interim as of right now
We've been creating reaction videos for Batwoman the TV series here is an example of what you can expect from them
Guys late what the look what the Dragons?
That's a dragon
But she's so deliberately pushed it across the whole team
They're just on the roof there's a propane tank on the east I'll distract them
You got there in time to save her from drowning
It's great maybe take her up. No, she gets the boat for like 17 hours underwater. We were separated in the first
The critique of the force awakens part three was started as early as 2018 when the original script was made and redrafted work on
Recording and editing started soon after the rise of Skywalker rage video was made and it was delayed by the - April Fool's videos
I have essentially been creating this three to four hour monstrosity for almost half a year as a one-man army
It was kind of a nightmare and hopefully the editing was worthwhile
If you would like to support the channel as I progress through all kinds of media analysis videos
Then please consider supporting my patreon or my subscribed star account when it comes to D monetization on YouTube
These sites are incredibly helpful in keeping everything afloat. I understand that many who support me through
These sites are consumed about a lack of updates on video creation, but I found as time went on that
Those updates were becoming redundant. I ultimately decided to simply carry on working rather than telling people in posts that I was working though
I still do send out tweets here and there about videos if you follow me on Twitter
You can catch some screenshots or posts about eventual releases because they are extremely easy to pop out during production
I apologize
If you feel as though your support has been in the relative dark and that you feel starved of content
But I really have a single day in which I am not working on. My main line videos outside of evap
So I want to take a moment to thank you all once again for allowing me to work on this as my full-time job
It's been a blast and I have no intention of winding down
I often have chances to speak on the progress of videos in the Q&A sections of every frame of pause if you haven't given that
Podcast a chance I thoroughly recommend it
It will give you an update here and there of current Moeller happenings as well as some hopefully informative media takes and some levity along
the way
The flag I
Don't claim anything else. We just have the best flag. It means nothing
But ultimately it means everything because everyone has a flag. I think I
Love man. Let's have a look. Yeah is a
man
Is a man flanked
Anyway, I would now like to announce something rather new in terms of support for this channel. Thanks to T spring
I now have a merchandise store
You can essentially find a shirt that has been created for all kinds of references to my previous work or a particular
rendition of my character
I have commissioned a whole load of talented artists with all kinds of styles and approaches to create some really awesome work for
Example we have a series of table designs that are very likely going to be used in future videos from Sid Nicholson covering some well-established
Attitudes I tend to take we have Pikachu having drawn up myself myself with the Isle of Man flag
And of course reading some big idiots in addition we have Lesya blackbirds take on the long man
The Jesus stick and my desire to get whatever I'm currently covering over with
We also have Strada Maya coming in with my disappointment on Dragon Riders ideas about falling off
platforms during Dark Souls 2 my heart all crimes in relation to having killed art and the sad realization that
Soma just isn't a horror game
Oh and how about these Terra CID locusts drawing up some intense images of the Longman
Terrorizing an innocent film critic or perhaps the long man pondering on the viability of Snoke soup and there is another something
Thoroughly inspired by something else. Do any of you remember this little highlight from so long ago
Oh
Draw a historical figure. Alright member okay
Group of friends
If I'm got hacked, which means that I'm a human an alien
if I have to be hacked this round that would mean that I was a human that I was being portrayed as an alien just
so
you know and I've been hacked at least I'm telling you that I've been hacked I'm telling you because that's
Either you've been hacked three times now, I've hacked twice
hacks
And I got hacked once in the beginning I get hacked the first round, right?
So who is confirmed good one do you think and I did get hacked because I'm a human. I've been hacked by Owen metal
Why do you slightly disagree on this?
Wow because I was hacked and before we have like ten I was hacked
Well that was made into a shit a shit that I imagine would raise several eyebrows in terms of meaning and quality
Regardless it would seem another image was made one that is celebratory of such an idea in the form of a HD
remaster
Yes, it's horrifying and so many more shall arrive on this store page in due time along with many
I haven't even mentioned in this very section from additional renditions of a logo straight from omega
Ridley to the main PFP I use straight from hall tab
I would recommend browsing around the whole store to see if there is anything that tickles your particular fancy
There's pillows mugs shirts bags
There's a lot of stuff I of course decided to buy a bunch of shirts and assorted items
Myself from what I can tell it's a pretty strong quality and it has the kind of media references that I imagine many of you
Will enjoy going all the way back to my very first Longman video
That and more are already on the site and I will be sure to show you guys new designs as I proceed with more videos
And commissions the site can take some time to deliver depending on where in the world you are and what is currently happening though
They are delivered with care at least in my case
As for evap image and ice rags and I will get that going in future
We want to test out our own stores first to make sure everything works and then start looking into the hundreds of possibilities
lots of fun stuff is on the way if you'd like to support this channel and something like patreon or subscribe star isn't
Preferable then perhaps this sort of merchandise will be links to everything are in the description
The artist's patreon subscribe star Twitter discord, the previous parts the fab podcast, etc
Thank you all for the support the generosity and the incredible fan. Have a good day. And I will see you all next time
You
Do you remember all of the pieces of exposition they had to explain LAN and handles his
These turned out to be her own from when she was a child
They lead her to a room in the lower areas of Maz Kanata
No
Does Isaac's renewed creative spirit working on indie films and art films like the
Card-counter mean he won't ever return to the Star Wars franchise
probably but who knows if I need another house or something a
Space janitor that walked all the way to the bank with that fat check and the opportunity to say he worked on Star Wars
Good or bad something that we all would love myself an Oscar drink to that
The from the best
