JJ ABRAMS Misled fans for NO reason

This is as I see it what you get when you allow multiple directors to have their own head and make changes to whatever they like as they go.

 

Let me get a violin. Or perhaps several boxes of tissues to pass out. I swear people are just spending the whole weekend analyzing everything to find more to complain about. People are gonna speculate no matter what.... on this forum. We're the minority. For each one of us there's thousands of less obsessed fans that watch the movies without obsessing over every detail. Those more casual fans have wondered backstories without theorizing at all. I envy them for not having read that snoke is everyone from Donald Trump to ponda baba and reys parents the same in bullet riddled moronic theories, but unfortunately like everyone else here I'm an addict and I always crave more star wars info. Plus too many details would've compromised one of the movies central themes that a nobody can rise up and make their own destiny. Get over it.

 

No it wasn’t, it was too early. It was vital that Rey learned about her family in this film for a number of reasons. She had discover it alongside Ren for their relationship to have meaning. She had to have something that would pull her to the dark side when training with Luke - only this would work. That is why she “goes straight to the Dark Side” when she is meditating.

She was 5 when they dumped her. She wouldn’t have understood why they left her and had to hold on to the hope that they’d return else she’s have no one. She buried the truth deep down and only when Snoke “took everything” did it come back to the surface.

People really are jumping in here too quickly because they have sour grapes. It makes perfect sense and the dialogue between Rey and Ren was sublime. It made TFA a much stronger film and filled in the blanks.

 

It's not a mystery if it's not a mystery... They should have just said she was no-one from the start!

 

i thought rey did said she was no one

 

Which makes one wonder where her desire for her parents to be special came from.

 

Where did she state that desire? She just wanted her parents to come back.

 

So what was the point of all the mystery? Why couldn't they have just built her character off of being no one of importance?

 

It was important that we discover the truth with Rey. And it was vital for Rey to have an attraction to the Dark Side in TLJ. Her parents’ history was the only way to do this. On top of this, the ReyLo connection was set up in TFA and this revelation was important for their story and could only be revealed in TLJ when they connect.

But he real truth is that they did build her character off of being a no one. Many of us realised that and we have all enjoyed TLJ immensely as a result.

 

It was a reveal that was tied to her character arc. So no. She wasn't ready to face the truth yet, so the audience discovered it with her.

Being abandoned so cruelly at the age of five gave her a mental block and she justified that action by essentially giving her parents an excuse for doing it-that they had personal "reasons" for leaving her and they would come back for her as they loved her. It fits in right with TLJ in its themes of subverting audience expectation and the nature of grandiose myth. We expect Rey to have important parents and even be connected to a character we know (Solo/Skywalker being primary), but then reality strikes and the depressing but freeing truth comes (it frees her from her past when she faces it)-her parents were just alcoholic junk traders who abandoned her. No big reveals or fireworks, just harsh reality.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 18, 2017, Original Post Date: Dec 18, 2017 ---

And maybe the Reylo connection will be continued in IX (maybe not in a romantic sense primarily but a redeeming one) and it'll be about her following Rose's advice to Finn in TLJ ("winning by saving those we love than fighting"-essentially violence) and realising vengeance is pointless.

"Wink, wink" "nudge nudge" jokingly.

Her fighting with the praetorians was also pretty "dark." She was yelling and screaming and taking wild swings, and won more due to smarts than anything.

 

JJ loves the "mystery box" concept, so of course he is not going to have just said she was nobody, just to trigger the kind of reaction he got...mass speculation.

 

JJ set up all those questions as part of the film he wanted to make. It was up to the next director to take those ideas and expand on them, and unfortunately Rian Johnson didn't see fit to do that. He wanted to tell his own story and had no interest in investing time in the ideas and seeds JJ had planted in TFA, apparently. That said, JJ is in control again so now's his chance. While TFA had it's own issues, I think JJ has a much better handle on the overall story arc and I think has more interest in backstory and the mythos of Star Wars than Johnson does. Hopefully he will give the time to address some of the things he set up in TFA.

 

There were 2 reasons for the mystery.

@master_shaitan is spot on. It was a big mystery because JJ wanted the audience struggling to understand Rey's identity just as she struggles to know her identity.

The second reason is outside of the film and more to do with marketing. JJ by leaving the characters without last names created a viral social media phenomenon which provided what might be billions in free advertising because fans effort to solve the mystery generated continual buzz.

Finn had no name at all he only had a number. So not giving him the name is fully in keeping with his character.
Rey having no last name put all of us in a place of rudderless uncertainty similar to Rey struggle to find out who she is and her role in the galaxy.

 

I agree. You can worship TLJ or view it as sacrilege, but it is quite jarring when compared to TFA. Kind of strange, when they're supposed to be telling a common story.

 

Is JJ known for mystery boxes and twists?

 

The cave dialogue was really weird! I couldn't figure out who she was talking to, and I still don't know! (Only watched once so far).

 

That is almost exclusively what he is known for

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 19, 2017, Original Post Date: Dec 19, 2017 ---

It's more or less her inner monologue being spoken aloud for us to contextualize what is going on.

 

Thanks.

I'm sure everything will be answered in Episode 9, just like how TESB's questions were answered in ROTJ.

 

It's the biggest concern I have. Can JJ close it out without his mystery boxes and will he resist retconning TLJ.
I hope he leans into what Rian started, and I mean this in the best way, so he can grow as a film maker. I think he has a keen eye for story and character but he gets so caught up in those damn mystery boxes....

 

That would make sense, however it's weird to suddenly have a narrator.