What would have been a better plot than yet another planet killer?

I love Starkiller. It's gone now. I wonder what kind of weapon they'll create next? If they make a Starkiller II... Yeah that might be pushing it.

 

A Black Hole.
Hang on, thats also a Disney film title too....

 

The political landscape, as explained in the novel and visual dictionary, makes a whole lot of sense... it just wasn't really featured in the movie.

There has been relative peace in the galaxy for nearly 30 years. Following the defeat at the battle of Jakku, the Imperial remnant was forced into a surrender, with the signing of the Galactic Concordance. Several high ranking Imperials (including Hux's father) fled into the Unkown Regions where they would reform as the First Order, far from the prying eyes of the Republic.

Leia stood alone as a voice of warning, while corrupt politicians pushed her away from the senate. Unable to just sit by and do nothing, she formed the Resistance. Although the Resistance encountered signs of the First Order operating within Republic space, there was never enough evidence to cause the Republic to investigate.

No one outside of the First Order and their allies was aware of the existence of the Starkiller base or it's weapon, not even Leia. So it came as a surprise to everyone when the Hosnian system was destroyed.

Their prior assault on Tuanul village, on the remote, sparsely populated world of Jakku didn't really draw much attention to anybody... not immediately anyway.

Yes, Finn wanted to go and rescue her, and although he may have been able to convince Han to go with him, he also needed to convince Leia. Han was trying to reconcile with Leia. Running off into eye of the storm to rescue a girl he hardly knew might probably wouldn't have gone down so well with Leia.

I think that in order to really move away from the Starkiller subplot, you have to go back further, and eliminate her abduction from Takodana. If she didn't get captured, there would have been no need for Starkiller at all... but then you also need to figure out something for Rey to accomplish.

 

It's a huge planet being converted, not some little Deathstar moon being constructed on the outer rim.

The supplies alone to create a planetary death gun would be astronomical, the constant stream of supply ships going there, plus arrangements for raw materials from various planets. Then there are the literally millions of specialist engineers etc needed. Sure stormtrooper could do much of the grunt work and 'sanitation" requirements, but they are hardly qualified or skilled enough to create such a large weapon. You would need to bring in a massive amount of trained specialist workers in from outside of the ranks of the First Order to pull it off.

You are trying to say with all of this, NOBODY was aware of this over the many YEARS and YEARS it would have taken build it?

That's a little far beyond the standard Star Wars stretch of reality.

For no suspicions whatsoever to reach the ears of anyone within the Republic is ludicrous. They have either been paid off and corrupt, are idiots, or or are under the control of the First Order already.

 

Off the top of my head I'd say if we're cherry picking from the Expanded Universe, the Starforge would have been an awesome super weapon. Something capable of constantly pumping out military grade fighters whilst feeding off the dark side? Count me in.

 

As I said, the First Order was formed in the UNKNOWN REGIONS... You know, that large region of Space in the Galactic West which has remained largely uncharted and unexplored for millennia? The Unkown Regions are the part of space where nobody goes.
If you're going to do something in secret in the Star Wars Universe, the Unkown Regions are the place to go.


Indeed, there were corrupt senators, who helped keep things quiet; these were the ones who quietly forced her out of the Senate, and kept the senate focused on trivial matters like trade dealings... In times of peace, no one wants to hear about the threat of another war.
In an additional scene found within the novel (and discussed in the visual dictionary), we learn that Leia feared that if she were to the Republic for assistance herself, that she would not make it back alive. Leia had become the only person brave enough to say anything about it.


How that First Order managed to survive out in the unknown regions is the real mystery...

 

A base where the First Order is keeping part of the map to Luke.

 

Dark initiate Army in training. Base or fleet of force sensative dark army or even a force sensative clone facility that rebels trying to halt/destroy.

 

Just a base without a super weapon but with a shield would have worked fine for me.

 

- Kylo being trained by both Luke Skywalker AND Snoke with neither of them realizing it .

- the Senate (HEAR ME OUT) talking about Starkiller and what leads Snoke to wanting to blow them up .

- Han losing his ship in the beginning of the film and Rey seeing it land on Jakku and she steals it and then Han gets it back later .

- Dameron's adventure that led him from Jakku to The a resistance Base .

- Luke Skywalker becoming Red Leader again
.

I can go on and on and on z

 

Anything other than the fate of the galaxy at stake. The fate of a character and stop there for now. No planet destroyers, 500,000 star destroyers, huge armies, etc, etc. Just a few rogue units, The dark side and the struggle against it. Call it a day.

 

How do you create a sense of urgency though?

This would be The Force Awakens 4 hour extended edition.
...with a few weird scenes that don't make much sense:
- the Senate (HEAR ME OUT) talking about Starkiller and what leads Snoke to wanting to blow them up .
"So, these First Order people Leia warned us about have built some planetary super-weapon. Should we go send our fleet to put an end to it?"
"No. They're just building it for giggles. We'll just sit here and see what they do."

Why would the Sentate be talking about Starkiller? The idea here is that they don't know that it, let alone the First Order, exists.

- Luke Skywalker becoming Red Leader again
Because, Leia's search for Luke, was really all about finding someone to lead Red Squadron... the First Order wanted to make sure he didn't get in an X-wing again...
That's pretty anti-climactic for Luke.... Jedi aren't supposed to be fighter pilots. That was partly what got them all killed.

 

Don't forget hat the title of this thread is, "what would have been a better plot ?" What I wrote was MY VERSION of concepts that could have made a better plot, if I would be allowed to change the plot based on what the point of this thread is supposed to be. What would your plot be ?

 

99% of the films urgency was because the sole mission to find Luke's whereabouts as he is the most important man in the galaxy, so it seems. They should have sticked with that story line as everything was hinging on that. The main reason to go and attack Starkiller base (and rescue Rey) should have been about preventing the First Order to find Luke. There was no need to make a sudden sub-plot about a death star 3.0. 1) it muddled the story 2) it felt too derivative 3) it felt just off. Remember that the original deathstar tooks a long time planning for the rebels to figure out how to finds it weakpoint and then it was still almost impossible..thank god for Luke's force insight. ;-) Anyways because it was established in ANH that militairy actions take a lot of planning etc..it just feeled rushed now..such a dangerous mission..an with a snap of a finger here we go 'and take out the big gun'. Pretty remarkable.

 

I didn't feel any "sense of urgency" from Starkiller Base. It was just a setting for the Rey/Finn/Kylo duel.

 

Also, The NR knew about The FO and had a treaty...when The FO started building The Finalizer and offensive weaponry and "acquiring" more troops, that treaty was broken. Now MAYBE The New Republic didn't know about Starkiller, but they HAD ago be expecting SOMETHING. Hats because there was precedent due two TWO DEATH STARS that the founders of this New Republic had literally blown up decades before .

 

As much as I loved TFA, I think it would have been much stronger without another superweapon. Earlier this month I came up with this idea for how the film could've worked without it:

Ok, I'll start off with Hux's speech, where we first are introduced to Starkiller Base. He could still be doing that speech, but instead of preparing for the destruction of Hosnian Prime, they could be prepping for an all-out invasion of it. Then they could show the First Order occupying the planet with little resistance. This leads perfectly into Rey being captured and held on the planet while Kylo Ren controls the troops with Hux. We could still have Finn, Han, and Chewie going undercover to sabotage the defenses and save Rey, but in addition we would get a cityscape x-wing/tie-fighter battle and a group assault too. Everything else would fit in perfectly, with the First Order being forced to retreat back to their mysterious fortress in the unknown regions.

Obviously its a very rough outline, but I think it'd be stronger than another superweapon plot.

 

My thought from the get-go was that the remnants of the Empire should be returned into a religious fanatical cult - reflecting the terrorists that plague the world today. They seek to spread fear through 'terrorist acts' (as they haven't the power to take over) so the dark side spreads.

I would've started the film with Coruscant being destroyed - by a device planted in the planet core.

I always said Luke should be off world. My original thought was that he should be in exile because news got out that he was Vader's son. He was outcast and using the Force outlawed (so the Galaxy would avoid being taken over by evil Sith tyrants).

This prevented Luke from starting a Jedi Order and peace remained a hope rather than a reality.

The prologue of the film would've been about a former rebel spy discovering the new imperials plan and rushing back to warn Leia and co on Coruscant. Imperials catch up with him but he gets info to Han.

The terrorists use a diversion so they can get passed the planets defenses - assassinating Leia. Han, distraught is faced with a terrible choice - he has to choose which of his twin children to save.

I won't go on as fan ideas tend to be tiresome! But I just feel it would've been much more surprising to go down a route like this rather than dragging out the ANH plot again.

 

Unfortuntately, Star Wars needs superweapons.
Otherwise, it'll be emotionless cgi ground battles, talking on sofas and trade route negotiations again.