OFFICIAL NEWS Notes on the various differences between the TFA novel and film

So, Star Wars posted this the other day on Starwars.com - I didn't see it get too much attention. There were a few differences back when the novelisation came out that a few of us picked up on - the most entertaining was the extra scene with Plutt on Takodana, and the most revealing were the extra thoughts behind Rey/Kylo's motivations and them pointing toward Kylo knowing Rey's ancestry.

The most interesting thing here is basically that the differences we already knew were there, and the subtle inferences of Kylo knowing of a force sensitive 'girl' in the film are confirmed by starwars.com itself AS WELL as the novelisation. As many of you know, some of the film novelisations contain excerpts, events, and asides that are considered creative liberties rather than canon, so it's interesting to see the official site backing this up.

 

It was based on the script, written before the film was released. Also, novels are better at expressing 'internal monologue' than films (what you tell yourself and what you think/feel about things). The only interesting thing here is that Starwars.com backed up what we were all already thinking about Kylo knowing who Rey is.


Another difference in the copy (may have been ammended by now) I read was that Starkiller Base sucked 'dark energy' from the galaxy, and used it to explode stars, rather than sucking solar energy from stars and using it to explode planets.

 

I think they wanted to make absolutely certain that it stayed secret. Or they realised the dark energy idea was kinda not star-warsey. Not that the sun thing was.

 

Fair point - and one I though myself before posting this. But it is still interesting. We are lead to think that the media is integrated and there is comprehensive oversight to make certain everything published fits a certain marketing plan. I don't put too much weight in this piece - it's a tiny piece in a large puzzle.