Spoiler: MOVIE SPOILERS Spoiler: GET SPOILED, ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE Saw TFA with my three younger siblings yestreday (three of whom dressed up - two Padawans and a Tattooine Luke, good job kids) and I enjoyed it a lot. I also called Han's death - early on I was like "hold up we've only got one Older Male Mentor/Father Figure here to continue Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon's proud legacy of getting dead in a dramatic scene part-way through the first movie of a trilogy" and then when the scene arrived, that "help me out here Dad" line was really vague and then the sun setting right as Han put his hand on Kylo Ren's lightsaber and casting a shadow over VaderJr's face - yeah, I wasn't really surprised. That scene was filmed really well, and apparently (Sister #2 noticed, although I did not) the set was mirroring the scene of Qui-Gon's death in TPM. Which I guess was mirroring Obi-Wan's death scene in ANH. Which brings me to the thing I'm liking the most so far. It seems like the creators of this trilogy are working pretty hard to tie the original and prequel trilogies together with this one - I mean, not that they didn't follow from one another already, but that I'm getting the feeling that the themes we saw in the original trilogy, echoed backwards in the prequel trilogy, are going to find their fulfillment in this one. I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens with Kylo Ren, because even though I don't like the character, I'm interested in the character's role in the story. Although I think it's pretty clear that Rey is the Action Hero, I think it's in Kylo Ren that we'll see the the conflict of Jedi ideals/Sith ideals/human sentient-being emotions resolved. I don't know much about the EU to begin with, and I haven't the faintest idea of how much of it is considered canon any more, but I read on Wookiepedia that the Jedi Code that the Jedi followed before the purge was an interpretation of the original Code, and the prequels seemed to illustrate that their interpreted-Code-based theology had some serious flaws. I think it would be interesting if it turns out that Luke had originally tried to re-create the Jedi Order as it was right before the purge, and the drastic failure of that attempt turns out to be the thing that makes him realise that he has to go back further to find a Jedi Code that can be followed without causing the problems that it did in the prequel trilogy. (They did say that he was looking for the first Jedi Temple, after all.) I wouldn't be surprised, and I would be very pleased, if Kylo Ren gets a redemption arc that involves Luke finding the balance between the Jedi When We Say You Can Have Feelings What We Mean Is You Really Can't and the Sith All Negative Emotion All the Time. We've also decided that Kylo Ren dyes his hair in a misguided attempt to look more evil. Overall, A+, would watch again, preferably not in 3-D the second time because it didn't seem to me that it was filmed with 3-D in mind and it was kind of distracting in scenes where I would have preferred to be focusing on the actual movie and not the So Very Cool Effects. Edit: But come to think of it, Rey could do the same thing as Kylo Ren - I mean she may have used the Dark Side already in her fight with him, she looked pretty ticked to me, and she hasn't had any training, really ... anyway, I suppose any of the Force-using characters have the potential to fall and then, hopefully, be brought back.
my only commentary abt the new movie (hence the lack of spoiler tags) is [silent screaming exhale] i love it so much i just put a fic up on ao3 to do with this movie and i actually need some advice from Veteran Star Wars Fans(tm) to execute something in the second chapter - is there anything in the SW continuum that can be used to take people with Force powers as prisoners, preventing them from using the Force but they're still conscious n stuff? i need to know because Reasons
ok continuing conversation from artist is problematic thread i nearly derailed @Dist sorry people in the thread Spoiler: star wars force awakens spoilers, also villain/hero shipping ohh man. I agree, poe and finn are a greaaaat ship. but boy oh boy am i foe yay and terrible villain dynamics ship trash, and that part where poe was captured and kylo was just. so yes to me. i doont ship ray yet mostly because my brain does not het for some reason. edit: besides my shipping feelings, i have this to say about new star wars: Spoiler AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA OH MY GOD I LOVE RAY. I LOVE POE. I LOVE FINN. THEY'RE ALL SO AMAZING AND I'M SOO EXCITED TO SEE MORE OF THEM AND WHAT A GOOD TRIO I JUST. YES. ALL THE YES. also a+ cinematography, that was great
Knights of the Old Republic had Force-suppressing, like, headbands or something? They were locked on in such a way that the wearer wasn't supposed to be able to remove it without either unlocking it with the key or giving themselves a life-threatening injury.
@Dist @amberbydreams can I join you in this? seems like just my trashpile Spoiler: :D OT4s and hero/villain shipping? yes please!
Now we just need someone to write/draw stuff for it. I've found the ot3, reylo, and there are roughly three fics each for kylo/poe and kylo/finn. Nothing exists for all four of them together. Yet.
@Dist Spoiler I'm pretty sure Anakin's hiding somewhere very, very far away from Kylo Ren. I mean, he's never gotten to see one of his temper tantrums from the outside before, it's got to be super embarrassing.
@emythos the more the merrier! Spoiler I know right!! And Kylo is just such.. god. he's exactly the kind of villain I'm trash for. I'm already reminded of when I was like 11 and adored Anakin in the prequels because he was dark and angsty and had pretty hair. Except this time I get to be trash for good acting! : D
@amberbydreams Spoiler When he was talking to the melted helmet, before we even saw his face, I turned to my friend and called him "a delusional emo pretty boy type" and then was so happy when I was COMPLETELY RIGHT
They continued this in SW:tOR's expansion. The big bad's sister was terrifyingly powerful in the Force as a wee baby and more than a little psycho so they "locked her power away," which made her angry, bitter and crazy. It also doesn't work very well because even with the lobotomy, in a cutscene she Spoiler: Knights of the Fallen Empire rips a nuclear reactor/"solar power generator"/actual miniature sun the size of a building out of its moorings from half a mile away and chucks it at your head. But the implication is that she's Just That Strong
Spoiler Riight? It makes me so happy, I love them angsty teen villains. My sister pointed out also that she noticed Kylo has moments where he breaks from being intimidating and is sort of awkward and I absolutely love it. He tries to hard. bless. and yesss they han killing scene was AMAZING. it was at that moment that i was like '...i'm seeing my 12 year old crush again but WELL ACTED. OH MY GOD.'
-smells the trash- a good vintage Spoiler: kylo?? kylo??? kYLO??? I left the movie a. completely blown away by how much FUN it was and how much i ENJOYED watching this thing and how much COOL just happened, plotwise and cinematography wise, god, every shot on Jakku was so gorgeous, especially when Ray was scavenging the old, dead space ship, and the shots on the bridge where Han was killed, GOD, the way the lighting was done, the SPACING, the PAIN you felt when you knew what room it was and b. completely blown away by the shipping potential. I know me. I wish to ship literally everyone with Kylo Ren. This is my design. Yeah I was telling Amber that I haven't put my finger on What The Damage, but there's something... awkward, asocial maybe, unusual maybe about how Ren acts. He rarely does eye contact, except when using the Force, he mostly ignore the presence of other people as seen both when he doesn't care WHO is there for his break downs and in his habit of only paying attention to things that interest him across the room. I'm not sure what precisely I'm trying to nail down but the was a discomfort in the way he acted, a sort of disregard for how he should be acting in any case, which might reflect his position of power more than anything and likely is done to make him seem threatening and unusual for people who don't feed off of abnormal behavior BUT ANYWAY he has the sort of 'what shared human reality' air that I really enjoy. If you wanted, you could pull all sort of weird conditions out of the air that he technically shows signs of, get out your DSMV and throw a dart, and get your sickfic on. Sickfic leads for hurt/comfort. Hurt/comfort leads to shipping. Shipping leads you to me, because here I am, with a fanart folder already prepared and a strange gleam in my eye. "Hello, my dear," I say in my crochety old voice. "Have you seen my lovely son, Kylo Ren? He has serious problems with self-image and feeling inadequate in his canon, and I'm going to use that to break down his barriers painfully and insert him into improbable relationships." "Grandma, please stop."
Spoiler: Bury me on Problematic Ship Hill Re shipping Rey- I won't say I actually wish that relationship on her, but the interrogation scene between Rey and Kylo hit every goddamn kink button I know I posess. Mind control/telepathy, weird invasive emotional intimacy under extreme duress, table turning, muh fuckin' JEDI. Holy shit. Like I said, I do not wish that kind of harm on Rey, but I would read the hell out of something that took that relationship somewhere interesting. That sort of pain is just too damn compelling. ... Also, not a kink of mine, but I'm p sure they're totally cousins. And it's Star Wars. They might've meant to go there. Spoiler: new spoiler for tonal shift Completely unrelated, but is there some sort of support group to help process the death of Han. It genuinely feels like someone I love came back into my life after I hadn't seen him for years, and then I watched him die. Woke myself up crying last night. (WHOOO! Med changes! And also Star Wars was my first fandom. I watched it over and over as a kid.)
Spoiler: Hand-waggles Hmmm, I unno. "This is the light sabre of Luke Skywalker, it belonged to his father and to his father's father before him and now it calls to you" seemed like pretty clear foreshadowing to me. Also the way the vision leading her to it started out with a flashback of herself being abandoned. Though I am not un-prone to seeing stuff where it is not, it sure looks like a gun in the foyer to me. ... also wait I am remembering that dialog wrong, aren't I, Luke's father's father was midichlorians, how can midichlorians own a light sabre. OOOH I know. Maybe the idea that midichlorians as where the Force comes from actually bunk/fringe science & they aren't actually things that generate Force, but things that eat it and colonize the blood of strong Force users. Meeeaning Anikin's dad was some Jedi asshole who wiped Shmi's memories when he skipped town... and that Qui Gon or Obi Wan or someone knew who he waaaaas.... and Anikin got his light sabre somehow, all this suggesting that the light sabre itself has some strong opinions on the subject of who inherits it WAIT NO now I remember, that line originally came from Obi Wan. "It belonged to your father and his father before him?" Making what Orange Eyeball Lady said a direct callback to that. ... If I'm not misremembering these lines entirely I am absolutely certain I'm just duplicating someone else's crack theory.
Spoiler Mmm, wouldn't rule it out. Like I said, I've been known to see shit where it ain't. On the other front, can someone please tell me if I'm hallucinating about the "father's father" line, I can't seem to find a reference to it on teh googles. *edit* NEVERMIND I found the orange lady's line. It's "Luke Skywalker and his father before him." Could still swear it's a callback though... haven't found Obi Wan's line yet.
Spoiler: incest?? At this point, no one is sure if Ren and Rey are related, and I've heard good arguments for both yea and nay. Some assume Rey has to be Luke's daughter for the lightsaber to act like that around her, some assume Ren and Rey are straight siblings because Episode VII has paralleled episode IV so closely, but no one KNOWS. I've seen pretty solid arguments for her being related, actually, to Obi-Wan. I'm just the kind of person who can look at a ship that might be incest and might not be and say 'whatever. cool. that might be the case.' That said, the interrogation scene was ten times of cool. I was high key unsettled and I loved Rey exploring her new force powers in an environment of panic and desperation. WILL THIS INTRODUCTION TO THE FORCE HAVE CONSEQUENCES, I WONDER.
One of my friends pointed out that Kylo's actor looks like a borzoi and I just. Can't unsee it. Whoops.
