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

http://www.starwars.com/films/star-wars-episode-v-the-empire-strikes-back

 

I stand corrected. Pleasingly so.

 

I need some more time to plan it out... I'll get back to that.

Actually... the urgency shifts from Luke almost as soon as Starkiller fires on Maz's castle.

And the Rebels didn't really have that long to plan their attack. Remember, the Empire tracked the Falcon to Yavin IV. The Empire didn't bother planning an attack, they just got over there as soon as they could. The Rebels had perhaps a few hours to analyse the data and find the weakness.

The Resistance, on the other hand, issued a successful reconnaissance mission to Starkiller before they came up with their attack plan. It was only the reconnaissance mission itself which made the Ileenium system a target. From the time the Falcon landed on D'Qar, Leia was able to question Finn, Chewbacca was able to seek medical attention, and Snap Wexley was able to make a return trip to Starkiller to gather further intel... They could have taken days if they had wanted to, but the Resistance were determined to deal with the problem before any other systems were annihilated.

Starkiller was preparing to destroy the Resistance base, Leia included. How is there no urgency in that?
If they failed, it would literally be all over for our heroes.

How would anyone expect a superweapon that can fire halfway across the galaxy? It was entirely unprecedented.
The Death Stars were mobile battlestations which had to be in relatively close proximity to their target.
The Republic would have been confident in their fleet's ability to stop something like another Death Star.

So Rey is captured on Hosnian Prime/Republic City planet capital and held there, then Finn and Han go there to sabotage the planetary defenses that failed to stop the invasion (and save Rey)...?
Or is Rey still taken to Starkiller, but then the Resistance go and launch an attack on Starkiller, instead of coming to the aid of the Republic Fleet in the Hosnian system?

I'm a bit confused.

Not bad. I think there's too much focus on the OT characters though... but I think you've got the right approach to the situation (figuring out what happens before the movie).

People need to realise though, that much of TESB rode on the back of ANH and it's superweapon.
TESB works fine as the 2nd part of the trilogy, but had the franchise started with it, it never would have taken off.
People needed to care about the characters before hand.

People seem to forget that Episode VII is as much of new beginning as it is a continuation.
There needs to be an imminent threat to the Galaxy for the new cast to overcome in the first part of the trilogy to solidify the characters as people we can be invested in.

 

I'm generally okay with SKB. It does three things: 1) establishes the FO as a serious threat in the universe, 3) showcases the new x-wing pilot hero, 3) clears a path for Leia to become an autocrat by the elimination of all representatives (the concept art Carrie Fisher leaked might hint that Leia struggles with some dark side issues).

I suppose an invasion of the capital would've accomplished the same things. That's a fair point. But I think a deathstar has to appear at some point in the ST. Remember that the FO is analogous to the Nazi's regrouping in South America. Fortunately, the german scientists never completed an A-bomb, but I think the survivors would've waited to build one before they reemerged.

It actually makes more sense for the FO and ODESSA Nazi's to have a WMD rather than an actual military. Where would they get the recruits? In fact, how did the FO find so many human babies to steal and condition in the Unknown Regions?

 

Yeah, that's what I meant, that they were expecting SOMEYHING, not necessarily Starkiller, though .

 

If the "super weapon" was a hoax and part of a plan to lure the Resistance into a trap to crush some of The First Order's enemies.

 

The heroes never seemed to have any chance of failing. We were shown that Starkiller Base has the same weakness that the heroes exploited in ANH and then we see the heroes destroy Starkiller Base without any effort.

 

A biological super weapon.

It would result in wiping out people from a planet, yet preserving the planet for the acquisition of natural resources, military resources and cities to be conquered.

Death Stars are a massive waste of resources.

 

Now that's not a bad idea.

 

Too many movies get stuck on the "world ending" threat plotlines. Then they think they have to get bigger and bigger with the "threats" in the sequel movies to inspire an emotional response from their audience.

If in the first movie the world was in danger, then therefore in the next movie the galaxy has to be in danger, and then in the next movie the universe has to be in danger (then the multiverse, then the existance of all time itself blah, blah, blah).

This is a mistake in thinking.

There are absolutely great movies where only one person is in danger of having their life destroyed, or just their family, or just their group of people and if the audience is invested enough in that individual, or family or group then it has more impact than "blowing up 5 planets of people" that didn't even get 20 seconds of screentime before they are blown to kingdom come.

In the case of Star Wars the hard work is already done for a number of characters... most of us are already invested before the movie has even started.

When Han was killed, I felt it on a deeply emotional level. While earlier when 5 planets full of billions of people were blown up... I felt nothing at all. Literally nothing.

This was for a number of reasons.
I had no reference for the planets in question because they had no previous screentime.
Noone was on those planets that I cared about (or even knew about).
I felt like I had already seen this all before.
(And because a weapon that can fire faster than the speed of light across the galaxy and yet somehow I could watch the beams streaming across with my own eyes made absolutely no sense).

"Less in more" is the old phrase.
But that does not mean that if choose to threaten only a few people (instead of "billions") that it doesn't have to be visually spectacular for the audience to watch, or emotionally compelling or that the audience will be less invested in what is happening.

Even when I thought "Poe" might possibly have died early in the movie... I felt sad about it. 20 minutes earlier I didn't even know this character existed, but I liked him enough that his potential death was disappointing to me. But when billions of people die by Starkiller blasts... I'm not sad, I'm not "wowed", I'm not shocked.
In fact, I couldn't have felt more indifferent about it.

The people writing and developing these movies need to remember these things.

 

The plot was to find the map to find Luke. The starkiller base was interesting cause it was covered as a planet. and the technology was that they can destroy several planets using the sun.

ANH plot was to destroy the death star. without thinking about what happens after its legit. dont get tied up on the starkiller base. cause you tend to focus on that as a plot. i cant think of any other plot you can use regarding TFA. a map to find luke is the main plot. like ANH=Luke(destroy death star) TFA=Rey(find Luke)

May the force be with you always...