Star Wars: The Force Awakens (12/18/15)

[thenammagazine]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

Right but for *Princess Leia* we aren't supposed to look at her and say, "you know she doesn't actually look that bad for a recovering coke addict."

Granted, but you aren't supposed to look at her with the mindset of a slobbering 13-year-old boy with a throbbing hardon either. Time has passed and even in SW people age. She looks great for her age. And I'd like to point out that in this universe, she will have aged in 30 years a HELL of a lot more gracefully than Obi did in just 20.

 

[Magpie 7]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

Granted, but you aren't supposed to look at her with the mindset of a slobbering 13-year-old boy with a throbbing hardon either. Time has passed and even in SW people age. She looks great for her age. And I'd like to point out that in this universe, she will have aged in 30 years a HELL of a lot more gracefully than Obi did in just 20.

 

[ShadowX81]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

All this talk about Han and Leia not being together in Episode VII reminds me of this article on doomed movie romances:

https://www.cracked.com/article_18435_5-movie-romances-that-wont-last-according-to-science.html

HAN AND LEIA
Why it Will Never Work:

Han's Looming Unemployment and Deteriorating Self Worth.

Han and Leia overcome checkered pasts, experimentation with incest and a general distaste for one another to form a love so powerful it couldn't all be included in the final cut of The Return of the Jedi. Also on the cutting room floor: the 4am fights, alcoholism and murder suicide that inevitably follow.

We totally understand that the "Princess and the Bad Boy" element is what was supposed to make us swoon--half of Hollywood romances are based on that. So let's say that they can overcome the distance caused by differences in socioeconomic status ( which psychologists tell us is no small barrier). But that can't bring Han and Leia down, they were united by the cause of the galactic rebellion! She respects him as a brave and passionate fighter for all that she believes in, and is entitled to!

Ah, about that. See, the war kind of ends when the second Death Star blew up. These two had never met before the war--literally every single activity and conversation they've shared has revolved around it. They don't know each other in any other context (this sort of thing is one reason why marriages hurriedly rushed into during wartime don't last as evidenced by divorce rates going up after ever major war since divorce was invented). Soldiers don't always adjust well to not being soldiers.

But that actually leads to another problem. What is Han's job when there isn't a war on? He's a smuggler, a guy with a ****ty car who owes money on every planet and always shoots first in a fight.


Of course, he was smuggling things past the evil Empire, which no longer exists. So does he go back to that job, only now smuggling things that the new government doesn't approve of? Space-crack and child slaves? How will the royal princess feel about that? What's the alternative, she gets him a job as a diplomat? Yeah, we can totally see that working out.

So either Han is unemployed (and the effects of unemployment on a marriage are devastating). Or, maybe he becomes the legal version of a smuggler. That is, a highway trucker. No matter how you slice it, the skills that made him the coolest man in the galaxy don't exactly translate to a 9-to-5 job.

Compound Han's deteriorating self worth with Leia's royal sense of entitlement and it's impossible that this love connection ends in anything other than spousal abuse.

 

[thenammagazine]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

I dunno. "General Solo" doesn't sound unemployed to me. I think the author was unaware that Generals usually keep their stations/ranks (i.e. jobs) in peacetime as well.

 

[Kamandi]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

Peacetime Generals usually wind up in political circles. A-holes running for office courting them for an endorsement, McDonnell Douglas or Boeing recruiting them to sell an expensive military contract.... doesn't sound like Han. Lando, however, would definitely turn his rank into influence in peacetime.

 

[thenammagazine]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

Peacetime Generals usually wind up in political circles. A-holes running for office courting them for an endorsement, McDonnell Douglas or Boeing recruiting them to sell an expensive military contract.... doesn't sound like Han. Lando, however, would definitely turn his rank into influence in peacetime.

I could just as easily see General Solo lording over a pilot academy and getting his hands wet on occasion teaching kids difficult maneuvers, etc. Before he was a smuggler he'd joined the empire to become a pilot. At tne end of ROTJ, we're left with a very different Han than the restless space pirate of SW and ESB.

 

[K07]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

At tne end of ROTJ, we're left with a very different Han than the restless space pirate of SW and ESB.

Han Solo grew up and became responsible. I don't see him as a politician either, but I don't see him abandoning the New Republic cause or Leia because it's not for him. He had spent years with the Rebellion and was obviously falling for Leia. Will they stay together? Hopefully. I think it'd be a bad move to have them split up even if they do get back together in this next trilogy. Didn't you guys see KotCS?

 

[Kamandi]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

I could just as easily see General Solo lording over a pilot academy and getting his hands wet on occasion teaching kids difficult maneuvers, etc. Before he was a smuggler he'd joined the empire to become a pilot. At tne end of ROTJ, we're left with a very different Han than the restless space pirate of SW and ESB.

Interesting idea if there were a Han standalone film, but it's more likely Luke will be the mentor for a younger lead.

Han probably gets a call once a year from his kid(s), I don't see him letting some little sh-t fly the Falcon.

 

[thenammagazine]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

Interesting idea if there were a Han standalone film, but it's more likely Luke will be the mentor for a younger lead.

Han probably gets a call once a year from his kid(s), I don't see him letting some little sh-t fly the Falcon.

I don't see it working as a standalone film. I see it working in a main film where they're planning a mission and go to pick up General Solo from the pilot academy, or Solo himself refusing to allow anybody but himself and Chewie to pilot Luke and/or Leia on a dangerous mission (most likely the latter since it's a mix of both old and new Han).

 

[Kamandi]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

What would be interesting with that idea is to see what Han would do with the Falcon if he had money in his pocket. It's already a hotrod, but what if he could do all the things he couldn't afford back when he was a smuggler?

That's the ship you want to be on when the sh-t hits the fan.

 

[VintijDroidGutzz]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

^ A pimped out jalopy.

 

[thenammagazine]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

What would be interesting with that idea is to see what Han would do with the Falcon if he had money in his pocket. It's already a hotrod, but what if he could do all the things he couldn't afford back when he was a smuggler?

That's the ship you want to be on when the sh-t hits the fan.

Nah, the Falcon will be untouched except for maybe the dish being replaced after Lando's mishap. They'll use the excuse that even on a General's salary, Han doesn't have enough credits to fix 'er up the way she deserves. Which for us, means we get the badass Falcon back!

 

[VintijDroidGutzz]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

Maybe Leia does get out & push this time.

 

[thenammagazine]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

Maybe Leia does get out & push this time.

[insert "more cushion for the pushin'" joke here]

 

[automaton]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

the fate of Han and Leia is exactly where it should be… within our imaginations.

 

[Khonsu70]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

I think it'd be a bad move to have them split up even if they do get back together in this next trilogy. Didn't you guys see KotCS?

Oh yes, unfortunately. The dialogue written for them was terrible. Marion had nothing to do as a character and Ford seemed to be phoning in these scenes. I'd hope that Episode VII would be written better, with some witty, cracking dialogue. Hide Ford's weed until he's done filming the scenes. I could see them having been married and estranged over time. I like Nam's idea of Han insisting on flying Luke and Leia on an important mission in the Falcon (which perhaps has been sitting in storage for a few years). I'm really attracted to the idea that, over time, these characters had moved away from the youthful idealists they were at the end of ROTJ. Heck, each of them had matured and Luke had already lost most of his innocence by the end of that film. I can just imagine where an additional 30 years might have taken them. So, as they face a new threat together, they sort of rediscover their old selves and fall into those old patterns of interaction. Then Han sacrifices himself to save the others.

I also think these characters should be mainly supporting characters to the main cast, on the level of Obi Wan, Tarkin, Lando, and the Emperor in the OT. Important, memorable, but not the main focus of the story. That should be a new generation of main characters.

 

[VintijDroidGutzz]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

Hide Ford's weed until he's done filming the scenes.

Oh man..

I've got a love / hate thing going with KOTCS actually. I flick it on sometimes, & FF the Shya LeDouche scenes & can kind of enjoy it.

Other times, I can't get past the fridge sequence.

 

[Magpie 7]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

I think Han will have returned to a life of crime, smuggling spice for whatever crimelord pays the most, Chewie going along like he always done. Probably gets mixed up with the wrong people and Luke and Leia have to use all their Jedi powers to save them.

 

[Khonsu70]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

Oh man..

I've got a love / hate thing going with KOTCS actually. I flick it on sometimes, & FF the Shya LeDouche scenes & can kind of enjoy it.

Other times, I can't get past the fridge sequence.

That's what's so frustrating about that film - despite the CG elvis monkeys, the fire ants that eat people down to the bone in seconds and build cheerleader pyramids to go after people on high, despite the aliens, the fridge, the lack of a plot, the awkward, no-passion love scenes, the "make-big-trouble-for-moose-and-squirrel" villain, Shia LeDouche and the crotch-shot jokes (although watching him get whacked in the jewels over and over did have a sadistic appeal!), this movie showed that there was still potential. Ford still has charisma as Ford and can carry off the action (within reason). Marion would have been great if she had a purpose for being there (I even liked the wedding scene at the end). Even the era worked for Jones - Communists instead of Nazis, that's fine. A younger character to take over the whip? Sure, but not SHIA.

Someone on the boards once mentioned an earlier screenplay for Indy IV that actually acknowledged the passage of time. The movie opened up with an older Indy, who had holed up at the University and become "Professor Jones" full-time, hiding away from his former life and adopting his father's fuddy duddy ways. The scene is a parody of the fertility idol scene, played out in the university library, with Indy looking a bit of the fool. He then gets swept up into the main adventure of the movie, rediscovers his mojo and how much fun it was to be Indiana freakin' Jones, and away we go!

If you were to chop up KOTCS into the various scenes that worked on their own, you could see how they could be incorporated into such a film. University intro (mini stand-alone adventure that has little to do with main storyline, in the tradition of the other films), Mutt (as played by a good actor) shows up at the University, exposition, exposition, then the scene at the University with the KGB, Mutt, Indy and the motorcycle, some other stuff that introduces Mac and sets up the scene at area 51 (with a better villain), which goes up to the rocket sled coming to a stop, then on to an adventure about finding Atlantis and saving Marion's bacon. Okay, maybe not exactly as filmed, but the flavor of those scenes. It could have worked.

Likewise, I hope Episode VII acknowledges the elephant in the room and addresses the passage of time. These are not the Han, Luke, and Leia of our youths, nor should we expect them to be, but they can be used for good effect for the sake of the overall story.

 

[K07]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

I also think these characters should be mainly supporting characters to the main cast, on the level of Obi Wan, Tarkin, Lando, and the Emperor in the OT. Important, memorable, but not the main focus of the story. That should be a new generation of main characters.

The more speculation there becomes, the more open I am to disregarding the EU.