Dear LucasFilm: Don't make Star Wars "small"

I agree with the OP here. With fantasy settings like Star Wars world building is a large part of the attraction and it shouldn't be ignored in favour of overwhelming vagueness. I don't think new and weird planets are exactly a necessity lest we devolve to strange planet types just for the sake of being different but I do think greater information should be given for the state of the galaxy at large. I'm not asking for senate committees on trade regulations or votes of no confidence but at least some insight into the politics of the NR or the FO and what state they are in during Ep.VIII.

I mean who can honestly put their hand up and say that they were moved by the destruction of the NR senate/Fleet in the Hosnian System?

No, put your hand down, you're lying. The overwhelming reaction from this event was confusion if not outright indifference because we had no idea what was happening and thus no idea of the significance of the event in the film.

As for those who say that they would prefer compelling characters to having a more detailed and nuanced background I have but one thing to say to you:



Yes, I know, two gifs but they say the same thing.

If they can't write a story with compelling characters in an interesting detailed world then they have no business writing a fantasy story.

 

Thank you...

If someone remembers people and also I wrote to this point some additional and exemplary scenes for the Hosnian System destruction to be more dramatic.

 

I heard that they filmed more for Hosniak but it was cut and is in the book .

 

JJ Abrams said that the purpose was to set up a universe that anyone could jump into off the street ...

 

Especially since Dian Johnson is supposed to be doing somethings "weird" ...

 

I never once thought that The Force Awakens felt small.
And to be perfectly honest, the majority of interactions with characters in the prequels (which did have more world building than the originals since it had a bigger budget and more advanced technology) were still human to human as the majority of major characters were human. And again, both The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones didn't show that much new in terms of new planets. Menace had two new planets out of 3 and Clones had 2 new planets out of 5. Revenge of the Sith was the one with a TON of new planets (look at Battlefront and Battlefront II to see the difference Sith makes).
I'm not saying that world building shouldn't be present, but never at the cost of the story and characters. And it should also not come at the cost of the audience who is easing themselves in.

No, I'm not lying. I understood what was happening (Republic capitol being destroyed by the First Order) the first time I watched it. The only thing I didn't realize that it wasn't Coruscant. I wish it was since it would have improved the scene since we do have some connection to the planet.

 

For a minute there I thought you were gonna give us some of that John Campea bantha poodoo

 

Seriously though, I also understood what was happening. Like you I initially thought it was Coruscant and was immediately cursing Abrams for wasting such a cool world but after discovering it wasn't I still cursed him for pushing the damned reset button. Indifference was still the prevailing feeling for the destruction of a planet we've never seen and the death of a Senate we've never met.

I'm still giving TPTB the benefit of the doubt and assuming the Republic isn't destroyed but I'll probably spend the next two years venting until Ep.VIII comes out or a leak tells me the Republic is still in the game.

 

And one member connected this indifference to some psychological repressing and denial of the armenian genocide of turkish people...

So my problem with this scene isn´t just trolling or any deep rooting denial of an on screen genocide...People genuinly had problems to connect with this because there was no Leia-like character from Alderaan....

 

I find this statement odd, personally. See, the destruction of Hosnian Prime has something that the destruction of Alderaan didn't: we saw the people. We saw the look of horror on their faces. We heard their screams of despair. And people had trouble connecting to it? I just don't get it.

NOTE: This doesn't mean I think Alderaan's destruction was weak. Leia's horror and loss did give it weight. We just had a different source for that weight in the case of Hosnian Prime.

 

The significants of Hosnian Prime and the whole system in retrospectiv to Alderaan seems to be very uneven and not in parallel to each other.

Yes, I saw Korr Sellas Face and wanted to know more about her because she was maybe the connection we needed. There was also the Fleet of the Republic. Hosnian Prime was full of things I could care about if I had known a bit more about it.

Alderaan was at first just a planet. But we had Leia Organa as the connecting character to the planets fate. The Planet was innocent. It was evil what happened.
But were there somebody from Hosnian Prime or the System we could venture with in TFA and feel the sorrow and sadness from this brutal terror attack? No.

If it had been by me Korr Sella and Leia Organa would have had one or two short but strong holo-chat scenes. Korr Sella was Leia´s right hand in the Senat. She was there to help the Resistance to gain additional power and ressources...WE as the Fans got this only from the books.

 

Will we find out that Kylo made BB8?

#small #smallworld #Lucas

 

The Force Awakens took on a very Minimalist approach to the story and plot of the movie. The story followed the paths of a few characters and allowed us to see a view as these characters developed. Viewers chose to take sides based on their views of these characters. The story made the galaxy feel small as there was a Resistance and a First Order and really just thugs somewhere in the middle.

The recent filming of Episode VIII leads me to suspect that Rian Johnson will be taking a grandiose approach to filming this movie. Everything in this movie will be, "overtly complex or showy" or over-the-top. I think that the scale of this movie will be significantly larger and that the factors at play in this movie will go much more beyond the hatred of a winey young adult (Kylo Ren). I think that whatever happens in this movie will be very grey, complex, and won't make the viewer want to choose sides but simply understand why each side is fighting for what they are fighting. Our sides will be very radical in their decision-making.

This is neither good nor bad but a stark contrast from The Force Awakens. Just a thought for discussion.

 

I think that, in being maximalist if in this approach, it could be A Prequel approach to The OT ...

 

It would be nice to have, you know, an actual big space battle in the movie. I would've rather that than the Starkiller business they went for instead in VII.

Stuff needs to happen out in the space and we need to see it. Star Wars doesn't need to mostly take place on planets.

 

I couldn't agree with you more. We haven't had a satisfying space large scale battle since ROTJ. Those few minutes at the beginning of ROTS weren't good enough for me. It's called Star Wars - we need some large scale space battles at the center of the conflict. The PT was massively disappointing in this regard.

As much as I loved EP VII, it baffles me that they felt the need to create a third death star for TFA - why not just have a massive First Order fleet descend on the New Republic? What's wrong with that? You don't need one superweapon when you have an entire fleet of Star Destroyers. The plot could have remained exactly the same without that corny OT re-tread...Snoke sends in a hidden First Order fleet to surprise attack the Hosnian System, which obliterates the unprepared New Republic. Starkiller base could have just been a super star destroyer. You can even put a planet destroying laser on that thing if you want, that's fine. Whatever. Just give us some damn capitol ship vs capitol ship battles in space!

I really love Johnson's film 'Brick' for how strange the basic premise of it is and I'm very excited to see what he brings to the table with VII. I've read that his script has been described as "weird", which is great news. MAKE STAR WARS WEIRD AGAIN! I don't want a 'dark and gritty' take on the universe. The Marvel and DC films have done that to death. Star Wars has the potential to be really fantastical and out there, and I hope EP VIII capitalizes on this. I'd like to see the ST take on new concepts that we haven't seen in the OT and PT, not just combining the best of both. I think Rian Johnson has the ability to do this, and I hope he makes some bold moves.

TFA did a great job of bringing Star Wars back into the mainstream. It needed to satisfy old fans, bring new fans into the mix, and justify Disney's investment in the franchise, so there was a lot of motivation for them to play it safe with that one. For the next installment I'd rather see a film that's criticized for being too bizarre than something that plays it safe. It seems like a lot of other fans are on the same page.