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sanctum_c ([personal profile] sanctum_c) wrote in [personal profile] splinteredstar 2015-12-26 11:10 pm (UTC)

The idea of Rey being Han and Leia's kid is definitely fed into by the framing of the film - and that to be force sensitive, let alone someone with potential needs a genetic connection. That said, the idea of genetics being a factor, while very much setup by the original trilogy ("the force is strong in my family"), is more of a prequels thing. There's a sense in the older stuff that being a Jedi is more akin to a religion (okay, so this is literally said in A New Hope at Vader. The difference I suppose is who you believe on what aspect of the world-building - did Lucas really have the whole thing mapped out (and thus Vader was always Anakin Skywalker) or was A New Hope a version of the original outline and then part recycled again for Return of the Jedi. Based on the comic version of one of the earliest drafts I'm going with the latter. Er... Ah! My point here is that familial links as force strength formed out of the prequels, and that the real issue in the original trilogy for lack of Jedi was lack of anyone to teach) or a martial art; there are those with an innate talent to it, but it can be learned - anyone can start Jedi training just as anyone can learn martial arts. The prequels on the other hand got kind of hung up on midichlorians and blood tests and such.

There's an interesting tidbit I saw today on tumblr which reportedly states that the casting for Rey was: someone who might be Obi Wan's grand-daughter. Which is an interesting other direction for things to go in (given that TFA didn't rely on anything from the prequels the monastic nature of the Jedi might have been dispensed with along the way as well - which remains true if Luke is indeed her father. So on that point; if potential Jedi are rooted solely in a genetic aspect/midichlorians where are they coming from? Presumably (since TPM turned out to be better on this point than I remembered) the force can trigger an abundance of midichlorians in an individual regardless of their family ties). EU-wise you are correct that Han and Lei had twins (The Thrawn trilogy is the point Leia gives birth as far as I remember - and both are force sensitive. The books while now incredibly non-canonical are very well done - five years post-RotJ). And I would agree; Leia doesn't seem to act like Rey is her daughter - though I did wonder why the film cut away from Han when Maz asked him about her and just what he did say...

But very much agree with all your stuff about Rey; the scavenging, independence, refusing to sell BB-8 even though she'd get a fortune in return (oh and her home being an AT-AT. Did not expect to see one of those in the TFA!). And the reaction to the lighsabre was really nicely done - and restrained! When the corridor from Empire appeared I was sure Vader was going to cameo in her vision, but noooo. Good, good!

Fin! Fiiiiiin! So shipping Fin/Rey (and Fin/Poe. And Fin/Rey/Poe. Because). And no one prodded him to give a longer answer than his initial ones; he wants to do the right thing. ...I was a bit annoyed that Poe's death was actually a thing as it's pretty obvious from the second trailer that he's in a later part of the film so...

Han and Leia were soooo good.

Kylo Ren; that second temper tantrum was definitely one of the funniest moments. But yes; as a character he was very interesting as a character. Ah! The point that made me actually start typing the reply:

Vader's skull would have been on the forest moon of Endor; Luke does indeed take it off on the Death Star, but when he lights the pyre you can see the mask has been reassembled (it's a lot better than when they burned Qui Gon Jinn in TPM - he's just... er... on top of the pyre). I think there was a debate for a while if Vader's body vanished like Obi Wan and Yoda (given Anankin's ghost appearance) - but since Obi Wan left his cloak and Yoda vanished with his clothes it could go either way (Luke might have just burnt the Vader outfit in the end. Well, not with TFA in place).

Really like the analysis of Han's death. Sadly this moment was kinda ruined for me as I heard the spoiler earlier in the week (Not simply Han's death but: "I can't believe Kylo Ren is Han's son and he killed him!" Thanks so much ><). And spot on with Kylo being treated as an immature child. I liked how people treated him with less fear than Vader - not just in terms of A New Hope where half the staff are sneery but if you push him he'll choke you - but in Empire where everyone's petrified of him. He really wants them to treat him like they would treat Vader but no one's scare of him like that.

I saw a slightly perplexing review making the point that Snoake is more evil/worse news that the Emperor which seems a slightly odd claim given, well, the Emperor but it's a bit early for that and quite what he's up to is really unclear.

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