SPECULATION What's The Force Awakens Really About?

There were some 'leaks' which claimed Disney wanted it to have a ROTJ tone, which I think is highly likely. Kevin Smith hinted that Episode VII would be a spiritual sequel to Empire, JJ's personal favorite is A New Hope etc.. So I think the film will end up being a combo of all of those films with a little bit of Phantom Menace thrown in.

 

I think that it borrows ements but I think there will be twists. Like the anti-Luke elements to drivers character.

But it is also a baton passing movie so similarities between characters should be expected.

SW was created in part homage to serial sci fi pulp stories like Flash Gordon. If the orginal was suposed to feel like one story pulled from many adventures.

 

I stated this on the other thread as well and I'll state a similar sentiment here. The broad outline MSW gives us does have a lot of elements that mirror ANH. Even if these broad rumors are true, we still don't know the fine details of the movie. These fine details can impact the overall feel of the movie and can make it much different even if the some or the broader themes are similar.

 

This movie will be about the return of the empire, with a new sith lord.
Maybe even more then one Sith Lord.

 

I'm with you, I've had the exact same reaction to some of these "leaks," which I'm hoping more and more are just way off base so that we go into the movie completely unaware of some major plot device that separates it from the rest of the Star Wars saga and doesn't just leave it feeling like a carbon copy of A New Hope.

I honestly cringed when I heard about the possibility of a super weapon. Haven't we already been down that road (twice)? Don't the story writers have any more creativity than that? It's that particular leak which is the only thing that's lent credence in my mind to the otherwise unbelievable theory that MSW is Disney's misinformation tool (or at least one of them).

 

I can't believe they would remake ANH with a fresh make-up. That would be such a grandly amateurish thing to do. As you suggest, @Kylo Samurai, we are probably still very much in the dark about this movie (hell, if we really could decipher the movie based on a few dozen leaked photos and some off-hand comments, the movie really WOULD be crap). In all likelyhood, 99+% of what we "know" is incorrect. That said, the OT was fairly formulaic in its storytelling (more so than the PT), so it is entierly possible that this movie will not break much new ground with its style and plot (but then again, which movie ever does?). If you were born in the last millennium, you have probably seen most of the storylines, character types and arches, premises, and plot twists before - that's just the name of the game. Still, I don't think we know anything about TFA really, and I certainly do not believe most rumors/leaks, and those that makes sense could easily be misunderstood by the source so that in the end we don't know much.

 

^^^ Exactly my thoughts. It would be ridiculous to have yet ANOTHER superweapon ( most of the crap sequels coming out these days even have better plot devices than that). I highly doubt JJ would be spending his time and energy to rehash something that was pivotal in the OT.

When JJ says that some of the leaks are true and some are not, I'm certain he's just referring to little tidbits, so we're kept preoccupied with trying to find out which ones he was referring to and then when the movie comes out it turns out very different than the rumors speculated.

 

But as far as we know the super weapons in question are different in use and ownership.

If the story revolved around Death Star 3 that I agree would be lame. However the rumor is actually that there exists an arms race with the Imps using a weapon to track and kill force users. There is a suspected planet killer weapon but the rumor is not Death Star 3 its a Rebel super weapon and is asking the moral question of "should the 'good' guys use such an evil weapon."

That is not rehash. That is adding arms race dynamics showing the group that used to be the freedom loving heroes as willing to cross the lines that made them once fight against the Empire. It is an attempt to ask a moral question. Which GL said years before the PT that the ST would hinge on.

 

I agree that if a superweapon is done a different way, it could very well work for TFA. After all, if a leader has access to say... a hundred populated star systems, and can direct the work and resources of those worlds to martial ends, superweapons could very well be made. And just because the Empire failed with the Death Star idea twice, doesn't mean someone won't try another big gun again. (That said, personally I would prefer something a little more practical than a Death Star type superweapon - there was a reason why insane weapons like the Nazi Landkreuzer tank never got further than to the drawing board during WWII; that would be resources very badly spent indeed!). Of course, if TFA does indeed turn out to be a story about the Empire creating a super weapon to terrorize the galaxy into submission, causing the alliance to attempt a desperate plan of flying X-wings down its barrel to blow it up and save the day, then someone needs to get their arses kicked with shiny Stormtrooper boots.

In summary, I think a superweapon plot could work, but redoing the supwerweapon plot of ANH will not.

 

I think it's a part of Luke's past coming back to haunt him while the galactic war is still on going, the Death Stars have had their time,

 

I'd like the plot to be linked in to the idea that the loss of the Jedi and the Sith has, ironically or perhaps some might say predictably, lead to some tension because the Force is still there, force-sensitive beings are still being born. So, in the 30 years or so since Jedi there has been a power vacuum - force sensitive people are coming along without the guidance of the Jedi or Sith teachings. I like the rumours that Kylo Ren is collecting Sith artefacts - trying to learn how the Force works. It may be that Luke and others are in a similar situation. Luke just had Ben and Yoda - not the resources of the Jedi temple, not years and years of training. Things may have gotten very strange indeed. As the voiceover in the trailer says, the there is the dark and the light, and this film will be about the tension between the two opposing sides of the Force - with old and new characters having to learn to deal with it. Whatever happens, it will be a fundamentally different film to anything we have seen before - because neither of the power structures that were in existence in the previous trilogies (Jedi Council, Republic, Empire) exists anymore. I'm really excited to see what has become of this galaxy in the last 30 years!

 

Personally I'd like this to still be at the heart of these movies:

I hope this movie goes a lot deeper than "uh-oh, the BAD GUYS are back".

In simple terms, an oppressive regime inflicts its will on others. When the oppressed are liberated, the challenge for the liberators then becomes not inflicting their will in the same way.
That is kind of what I hope these films deal with - what do the victors do next? If TFA was reaching to reflect real life, the challenge would not be simply abolishing the Empire, it would be about restructuring what is already there, making what was "the Empire" democratic again.
Because that's where the ambiguity would creep in. It's easy to buy into the iconography and just presume, for example, Finn is a Stormtrooper with a conscience, a "bad guy" who's seen enough and decides to "do the right thing".
It may even be more complex than that though. What if the troops are now the peacekeeping force left in place while the structure of the Empire is slowly converted to one which functions democratically? Isn't that just the reversal of what Palpatine did - he didn't abolish the Senate, he made it work for him and then assumed control of it... and it took him until ANH to distort it to the point that he could do away with it altogether.

We just presume the Stormtroopers are the bad guys, but what if Finn and his allies have been (under the assumption they were) working for the greater good, and Kylo Ren and whatever he brings to the party is a relatively recent development? He's the one who is starting to abuse his position and the role of the military, and his actions have led to Finn's change of heart.
It makes sense - phase out the genetically obedient trained killing machines of old, but keep the infrastructure in place. Replace them with conscripts, individually-minded regular Joes installed to keep the peace while attempts are made to stabalise the galaxy again. It isn't going to happen overnight.

That's vaguely what I'd like to see.
"The Empire just still exists as it was" or "someone has resurrected the Empire" just seems too simplistic to me. And kind of not moving the story anywhere new.
I'd rather things hinged on the choices our heroes have made since ROTJ, and how they are struggling to maintain that balance between keeping the peace without allowing the new regime to be as rotten as the one which preceded it...

I suppose the key to all of this is how Kylo Ren relates to (what we would call, for want of a better expression) the "Empire", we haven't really got much to go on on that front.

 

@Get In Gear, you just voiced my hopes for TFA that I have been unable to articulate. I would LOVE it if TFA was about the problems that arise once the post-RotJ party is over and the “guerrilla terrorists” find that they actually have to start running the galaxy instead of just throwing wrenches into the machinery all the time. Kylo of course, (assuming he is the Vader wannabe that rumors seem to paint him), DOES have the solution: “things are blast now, so let’s return to a simpler time when everyone knew what was right and wrong, because no one bickered over stupid and selfish policies in a senate, but instead did what they were told by the pretty awesome [read: powerful] space shaman that was the Emperor. I want to bring that back!” So yeah, Kylo as a righteous religious extremist would be fun.

By analogy, my second favorite novel in the universe is Frank Herbert’s Dune. It sets up a brilliantly engaging universe that is interesting and easy to believe in, and tells the story of a young prince who chose the mighty whitey path and use local scruffians to become Emperor of the Universe. My most favorite novel in the universe is Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah, which shows how everything turns to blast as the reality of living in the space-messiah-emperor-of-awesome’s realm isn’t quite the paradise one expected. That book took me completely by surprise when I first read it, and I loved the ironies and greyness of the story. I would love it if TFA did something along those lines, and shows the problems that present themselves post-RotJ, and how victory for the good guys turns into disappointment and resentment and longing for the old days, when the trains ran on time and all that.

I must admit, however, that I don’t think this is very likely. Star Wars doesn’t do (or hasn’t up until now done) complex and ambiguous, and Disney isn’t particularly keen on it either. I think it is very possible that TFA will be a simpler story about a new bad guy to beat, but I seriously hope they try for something a bit bolder.

 

The fact the film starts on Tatooine is bull****, way too cliche. If there are no new planets, no Luke duel, and beloved characters are killed off without getting a justifiable amount of action/screen time, then it will disappoint me.

I think The Force Awakens will be a pseudo-remake of A New Hope, in the same way that Prometheus was a modern Alien. That could be good or bad.

I'm not against a super weapon plotline though, as Angel said.. it could work if they do it right.
How else can they bring back the doomsday feeling of the Death Star in A New Hope?

 

I agree but I think it will start up in space before we are dragged to the sandy surface to Finn sweat things up, Luke will come out of jedi retirement to give us another duel to remember & not all the beloved characters will be killed off, I hope at least Daisy Ridley will appear in living or death.

 

That's what they're getting paid millions of dollars to do. Off the top of my head, perhaps one of the consequences of the Force "awakening" is that those on the dark side are more capable of affecting life forms across vast distances of space, meaning if, say, an ancient Sith Lord weren't stopped, he could essentially control all the lives within the galaxy/end those he didn't care for, a la Professor X when he was manipulated to do the same in X2 with the Cerebro?

The above idea is likely not what they're going for, but it's high stakes and doesn't involve a manmade planet- or system-destroying weapon. And that took a minute of pondering. With the months/years they've put into this story, and with the type of money they're getting paid, I'd hope they can come up with an idea better than both "The Catapult" and the one I listed above.

 

well if the pt is about the dark force and the ot is about the rise of the light side, expect ep. 7 to be about " the dark side ... and the light"

 

This is exactly why i'd rather have a superweapon, I hope Disney don't go too fantasy with these new films.

 

The point was, given the resources and time they've been allotted, I don't think it's too much to ask of them to create a story of astronomical stakes that doesn't use a super weapon as a narrative crutch.

But honestly, if they find some way to make it *feel* fresh, a la the Republic has their hands on the weapon, I could live with it. Though I'd still much prefer them being more creative than that.