Star Wars: The Force Awakens Reactions - SPOILERS HERE ONLY

[Brian Fowler]

They moved the capital off Coruscant in one of the novels.

[Craig H]

Right. After the Empire fell, the New Republic made Chandrila their home base. Then they decided to rotate the planet where leadership resided based on elections, which is why leadership was located on Hosnian Prime.

[Jingus]

And all that would be great if they mentioned ANY of it in the new movie. As is, the Starkiller still wipes out a bunch of completely anonymous nobodies.

[Craig H]

The Hosnia system was mentioned. Not only that, but then you once again get into information overload where for most people, it's going to be confusing or distracting when the very basic thing you need to know is that the General Hux just destroyed the New Republic in one fell swoop, along with obliterating four other planets for shits and giggles. If you want to know the exact specifics, there are places for that, just like there was with the original trilogy.

 

You also referenced how Alderaan was mentioned repeatedly. It was because Darth Vader forced Leia to watch it's destruction, it was Leia's home planet, her adopted family lived there, and it was seen as THE base of the Rebel Alliance. Of course it would be mentioned by name, on a few occasions, because of everything involved with it. With TFA, what you needed to know was that Starkiller Base was going to wipe out the New Republic from the galaxy by blowing up it's leaders and other planets in the Hosnia System. Mentioning the planets by name in this scenario is a near pointless exercise. Shit, I still hear or see people not even know what planet the Death Star blew up. You're going to have to venture out to get those additional little nerd morsels, which if you care at all, you were going to do anyway.

 

I mean, I've yet to see what the added benefit would be for saying which planets were obliterated, what was on those planets, that the New Republic leadership wasn't located on Coruscant or Chandrila, or that the leadership bounced around to the home planet of the person elected leader. As I mentioned earlier, you get to one of the big problems with the prequels where you have massive info dumps that drag everything down when it could be summarized better or when other outlets exist to receive those same details.

[EVA]

You also referenced how Alderaan was mentioned repeatedly. It was because Darth Vader forced Leia to watch it's destruction, it was Leia's home planet, her adopted family lived there

And that's why it was better. Alderaan meant something. It had personal stakes for one of the story's central characters. Alderaan is also central to the plot, as that is where all the characters are converging at that point in the story and the heroes finding an enemy space station instead of the planet they're expecting is a significant turn of events.

The Hosnian system has nothing to do with anything except for the 30 seconds it takes to blow it up. You could take it out and it wouldn't affect the movie at all.

[J.H.]

Finally took The Wife to see it a second time. Now that my fanboy euphoria has been washed away a lot of things come across clearer. The Wife felt Kylo Ren was conflicted about killing his father but on second viewing it becomes more  apparent to me that it was a trap from the outset so he could totally, there was no conflict. They are making Kylo the  exact opposite of Luke, in that Luke was absolutely against killing his father, while Ben was 100% ready to do it without remorse. Him killing Han wasn't a change of heart thing, it was him luring Han in to a false sense of security so he could do the deed.

 

James

[Spritenaut 32]

Finally took The Wife to see it a second time. Now that my fanboy euphoria has been washed away a lot of things come across clearer. The Wife felt Kylo Ren was conflicted about killing his father but on second viewing it becomes more  apparent to me that it was a trap from the outset so he could totally, there was no conflict. They are making Kylo the  exact opposite of Luke, in that Luke was absolutely against killing his father, while Ben was 100% ready to do it without remorse. Him killing Han wasn't a change of heart thing, it was him luring Han in to a false sense of security so he could do the deed.

 

James

 

This is how I interpreted the scene. Honestly, until now, it never occurred to me they might have meant the scene to depict him as being conflicted.

 

On the other hand, I thought the scene made Han out to be more trusting (ie, dumber) than usual, so maybe it wasn't supposed to be entirely a ploy.

[The Unholy Dragon]

I got both honestly. He was absolutely planning to kill him but still felt torn about it.

[piranesi]

I've only seen it once and while he was telgraphing that he'd already made up his mind it also seems a little odd he would put that much into the act when the old man was already standing in front of his light saber beam.  Like, was that just for the larfs?  That would actually be kind of disappointing because whether we think he's redeemable or not, his relationship with Rey is going to be way better if one of his weaknesses is his wavering devotion to the dark side.

 

Otherwise he's just an Alan Rickman style villain simpering for show and I feel like Abrams will want something more conflicted.

[Matt D]

He was trying to contrive drama because he only understands the world through what he has read and watched on TV. It's why my 13 year old pretends to be afraid of sharks.

[Reed]

 

Finally took The Wife to see it a second time. Now that my fanboy euphoria has been washed away a lot of things come across clearer. The Wife felt Kylo Ren was conflicted about killing his father but on second viewing it becomes more  apparent to me that it was a trap from the outset so he could totally, there was no conflict. They are making Kylo the  exact opposite of Luke, in that Luke was absolutely against killing his father, while Ben was 100% ready to do it without remorse. Him killing Han wasn't a change of heart thing, it was him luring Han in to a false sense of security so he could do the deed.

 

James

 

This is how I interpreted the scene. Honestly, until now, it never occurred to me they might have meant the scene to depict him as being conflicted.

 

On the other hand, I thought the scene made Han out to be more trusting (ie, dumber) than usual, so maybe it wasn't supposed to be entirely a ploy.

 

 

Pretty sure Han knew on some level it was probably a trap.

 

But it's his kid, so he had to take the chance that maybe he had changed his ways.

 

Not dumb, exactly. More about how people will do anything for their kids.  

[tigertooth]

 

You also referenced how Alderaan was mentioned repeatedly. It was because Darth Vader forced Leia to watch it's destruction, it was Leia's home planet, her adopted family lived there

And that's why it was better. Alderaan meant something. It had personal stakes for one of the story's central characters. Alderaan is also central to the plot, as that is where all the characters are converging at that point in the story and the heroes finding an enemy space station instead of the planet they're expecting is a significant turn of events.

The Hosnian system has nothing to do with anything except for the 30 seconds it takes to blow it up. You could take it out and it wouldn't affect the movie at all.

 

 

Agreed.  I mean, there are planets in the SWverse that viewers have an emotional connection to.  We'd care if they got blown up.  The Hosnian planets are not among them.

 

Instead of "read the novels so you can understand that they moved the capital, and then you'll care that these planets were destroyed", why not just destroy Coruscant?  Or, I dunno, Yavin 4 -- that'd be heartbreaking!(*)  If those planets(**) were destroyed, it'd mean something to people who watched the earlier movies.  Instead, it's five planets we never heard of before and never even spent time on during this movie.  Heck, if Jakku had been one of the planets, we'd have felt for Rey. 

 

(*)and an interesting callback to Ep4, when destroying Yavin 4 was the Empire's nearly-accomplished goal.

 

(**)yes, I know

 

I mean, let's put it another way: suppose the movie told us that Kylo Ren's father was Blaarth Fendar.  Then near the end, Kylo confronts Blaarth on a bridge and stabs him through the heart with his lightsaber.  Would that have the same emotional resonance for the viewers as Kylo killing Han Solo? 

[Bustronaut]

If the script were any good, it should have.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I read the Han/Ren scene as Ren being conflicted.  He just got out-Forced by Rey during her interrogation, then clowned by Hux in front of Snoke for being out-Forced by Rey (and opting to ignore BB-8 in favor of capturing Rey, which backfired spectacularly), so I think he was a little shook & doubting himself.  The Han/Ren scene was basically Ren asking Han's permission to kill him to help soothe those doubts & cement him in the dark side.

[Craig H]

The first time around, I thought it was Ren being conflicted, but on second viewing, Ren saw it as an opportunity. He talks to Vader's helmet, asking for help and guidance in resisting the pull to the light. Snoke questions Ren on his devotion to the dark side. So when Han confronts Ren, opportunity is basically knocking. Ren tactfully lures his dad in by getting him close enough to run him through without dealing with Chewie because you know as soon as he sees Han, he likely senses Chewie and the others. Killing his father is taking that last step, crossing the point of no return to the dark side, and it proves to himself that he can totally resist the pull to the light side of the force.