RUMOR Flashbacks, Yes or No?

Exactly. Vader will live without a flashback.

 

I agree Vader's life revolved around the PT & OT trilogies time for him to sit this one out.

 

Oh, he'll be back. Not Anakin....but Vader.

 

Cue the voice of John Earl Jones please.

 

I'm a bit on the fence with this whole flashback thing. Yes, it can be considered lazy storytelling if we consider the entire scene where Obi-Wan described Luke's dad and his prowess as a Clone Wars pilot without any flashbacks, but then given that nothing in the CW era had been filmed by that point chronologically, it's also possible to say that it was impossible to flash back to it.

However, being an avid fan of the magnificent universe Mr Lucas created, I'm keen for Disney to milk as many possible *decent* storylines out of it as possible, so rather than go through the whole flashback thing, I'd really rather the characters refer to locations, characters and events not shown on-screen during the movie thereby leaving more open for future exploration, as others have said before me, in the medium of spin-offs, live-action and animated series, video games, books and comics, particularly since it's all canon now anyway.

 

If the rumors are correct it seems like it is going to be a shared vision of past events among some key characters that will give us insight to the current day story. In which case if done correctly may work better than just mere references.

 

So you think that the flashbacks or visions of the past are going to be pages of the new Aftermath Novel that resumes the 30 years before TFA?

 

I'm in total disagree of using flashback, I think that they are a lazy narrative tool . I really prefer another way of telling stories (like C-3PO telling the ewoks all the adventures they had). I can't also accept a hologram recording like in Episode III when Obi-Wan finds out Anakin is a bad guy with the Jedi Temple Recordings... So lame...

 

hahaha Thanks, mate!

 

Hello everyone, first time poster, long time lurker and long time fan of the site. You guys/gals are doing a great job. I'm excited to be here and even more excited to be attending my first Celebration in Anaheim tomorrow!

Now that I got that out of the way... I'm on the fence about the use of flashbacks. I do not know how many "moviegoers" will have read "The Aftermath" before TFA hits theaters in December, so much of the audience will be at a loss of what has taken place over the past 30 years since the end of ROTJ. There needs to be an explanation of what events have transpired between "now and then", but I do not think cramming this info into the opening crawl will suffice. Maybe flashbacks will be used in TFA as a bit of storytelling to get us caught up to the present, but this needs to be brief, concise and to the point (and infrequent). The problem that I may have with flashbacks is that it will remind me, and possibly many others, of LOST, which is so "JJ", just as lens flares were used in Star Trek, and people associated that with JJ as well. JJ needs to add his own "flare" (no pun intended) to these films, but doing so by maintaining the feel and essence of a Star Wars film (hopefully more like the OT, less like the PT). Perhaps events over the past 30 years will simply be explained during conversations between characters and droids? I feel this will be a shortcut and will be a disservice to the real SW fans, but ultimately a means to an end. And this could also set up a spin-off movie or another prequel trilogy, but I know, I know, stay on topic.

I guess the real question is, and also what I am wondering is, how would YOU like the movie to address events that took place between ROTJ and TFA, if not through flashbacks?

 

I just hope to be NONE flares at all!... This thing is a huge cultural phenomenon for just one director taking personal choices. I really think we are good to go after the opening crawl

 

No. I think any "flashbacks" will have nothing to do with the content of Aftermath and vice versa. Aftermath is going to cover what happened closely after ROTJ. It likely won't have any of the new characters or storyline in it. The "flashbacks" will likely be focused on the main storyline of TFA and involve some of the new characters.

 

I have no problems with Flashbacks, as I wish the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker were told through flashbacks in the ST back in the 1990's. I am not a fan of Prequel Movies of any franchise because we know how everything ends so it is sort of anti-climatic. Whereas flashbacks told through a linear story (Like Godfather II) is interesting because you get the best of both worlds.

How great would the ST have been starting in 1999 as we see the continuing story of Luke, Leia, Han and their offspring 20-25 years after ROTJ while showing flashbacks of how Darth Vader came to be.

 

In a perfect world, I would like them to address events that happened between ROTJ and TFA just as the previous movies have done - through character interaction and dialogue.

A previous poster mentioned the scene in which Obi-Wan tells Luke about his father in ANH. It's probably the best argument for the No Flashback camp. It's a vital scene to the overall story where a flashback could have been inserted...and yet it works just as well without one. I would also say that the scene with Obi-Wan on Kamino where he learned about the creation of the clone army is another such scene.

Who knows, maybe the rumored events of the flashback in TFA are so vital to the story that you absolutely need one for the story to make sense (I'm skeptical on that). I'll have to wait and see it in action before I make a final call. Until then, I'm firmly against flashbacks, but I'm open to being proven wrong.

Flashbacks do three damaging things in my opinion.

1. Kill the Mystery - When mysterious events are alluded to by characters, we as the audience are set free to speculate and hypothesize to our heart's content about what they are talking about. Do we really need a visual interlude to spell it out for us? Or can we just sit and stew on the mystery of what was just revealed by Character A to Character B? To me, the latter option is the fun part.

2. Make the SW Universe seem Smaller - Han's mention of the Kessel Run or Anakin's jab at Obi-Wan about the gundarks...that's classic Star Wars in my mind. Casually mentioning something that happened previously creates the idea that this is a living, breathing world. We as the viewer are just catching a brief glimpse of something much bigger. Heck, Vader's "No Disintegrations." line. The implied history between Han and Boba Fett. Every single background character. Star Wars is about the "Wait? Who was that? What did that mean? OMG! That was so cool!" moments.

3. Insult the Intelligence of the Audience - I think modern movies have conditioned us to think we need everything spelled out for us. All jokes aside, I think all of us are smarter than that. We can fill in the blanks on our own. We can pick up clues and hints to some larger story. Flashbacks are the equivalent of watching a movie with that annoying friend who feels the need to explain to you everything that's going on. "Hey pal, I'm doing just fine piecing things together on my own, thanks."

Anyways, thanks for reading my thoughts. No matter what, this movie has me jacked. Especially after the new teaser!!!!

 

So the Vanity Fair email just went out and contained a snippet of a new interview with J.J., and I found one of his answers particularly interesting in regards to the rumored flashbacks.

Read what you want into it, but the way he talks about "referencing" the past and how many of these references are very oblique gives me hope that the rumors about the flashbacks are wrong. There's a difference between referencing the past and blatantly showing. And flashbacks are definitely not "oblique." They're actually quite on-the-nose.
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Bruce Handy: Your movie is taking place 30-something years after Return of the Jedi. Are you going to give it some of that fill-in-blanks quality, in terms of whatever’s happened in the Star Wars galaxy across those decades?

J.J. Abrams: Well, what’s cool is we’ve obviously had a lot of time [during the development process] to talk about what’s happened outside of the borders of the story that you’re seeing. So there are, of course, references to things, and some are very oblique so that hopefully the audience can infer what the characters are referring to. We used to have more references to things that we pulled out because they almost felt like they were trying too hard to allude to something. I think that the key is—and whether we’ve accomplished that or not is, of course, up to the audience—but the key is that references be essential so that you don’t reference a lot of things that feel like, oh, we’re laying pipe for, you know, an animated series or further movies. It should feel like things are being referenced for a reason.

 

In the past, people with a connection to the force can draw upon it and see potential paths and current situations.

We have a gap in in time, an important event has happened... they could handle that in 3 ways...

1. Start the movie with the event... then do the "10 years later..." and we meet the current cast.
2. Have a recalling or sharing of a vision, a telling of a story... that gives us insight into the current situation. It could be a powerful revelation. And something that only a single character can share through their powers.
3. Have the characters piece the event together as they come together and figure it out through dialogue. Not visually interesting... with a great acting it could be powerful... but it could also be tedious and slow down the pace. Or the characters say things and we the viewer try to piece together but never quite get there.