I’m thinking he hasn’t been trained with a lightsaber, being that his is a sketchy DIY job combined with his haphazard and sloppy swordsmanship. It’d been a while since I watched Jedi, and I always remembered Luke tossing the saber away before refusing the Emperor’s demand and he clearly doesn’t have it when he’s dragging Vader’s dying body to the shuttle but WHOOPS it pops back up just in time for the yub nubbin’.
But assuming that’s not a continuity error and Luke did keep his lightsaber I’m thinking that his newschool Jedi academy was simply more in line with Yoda’s teachings and his students would learn about the force well in advance of any weapons training, if any. There’s no more Sith, so, no more duels need to happen as a matter of course. Indeed, the first force power we see demonstrated in TFA is Ren stopping a goddamn blaster bolt with his mind. I think this is maybe the biggest clue as to what ole’ Luke’s curriculum was centered around. If Ren was able to wipe out the whole school, something tells me the other kids didn’t know dick about fencing, either.
BTW, Finn gets his ass kicked by Ren when he fights him. He gets one lucky hit on Ren’s injured side and then gets crushed so bad he never regains consciousness. I figure that stormtroopers, at least ones in Finns unit got some training to fight vs lightsabers since the one trooper who faced Finn had a weapon made specifically to fight against lightsabers. That training would give Finn enough training to get himself in trouble with a lightsaber, which he did, twice. As far as Rey, after watching the movie a second time, tonite, she did not fair much better vs Ren (who was severely injured already and was smacking his wound to pump himself up) She in fact got HER butt kicked and barely managed to survive until the cliff scene, where she was offered training by Ren. She then gathered her thoughts and found calm in the force. With the new focus it provided her, she was able to take advantage of Rens weakened state and beat him down trough sheer determination. Nothing actually points to anger being what drives her. Anyway, after seeing the fight a second time, I see nothing that bothers me in how it was presented.
I don’t think that’s the case. It’s apparently a stun/shock baton (as discussed upthread). Apparently that “stun field” also miraculously makes it saber-proof.
And a “completely wish-fulfillment character” has no place in Star Wars. Luke isn’t a wish-fulfillment character in that sense. Young Anakin might be considered such in tPM, but that’s Lucas “going too far”, and that lesson ought to have been learned by Abrams and Kasdan.
IOW, if Rey were Ray, you’d have no business defending HIM as a “completely wish-fulfillment character” in Star Wars. You have no business defending Rey either.
My final word on this: Star Wars was never wish-fulfillment except in the broadest sense that all heroes are to some extent. The idea of the lead characters in Star Wars has always been to grow and learn and change, to be transformed by their experience. Ray doesn’t need anyone’s help (as he makes plain several times, in case anyone was in doubt); therefore he’s not a very good Star Wars lead character.
If characters in Star Wars are now to be Mary Sues and Gary Stus, then Star Wars is dead, and Abrams and Disney have killed it.
I honestly think a lot of what’s going on here is cognitive dissonance. It seems almost unbelievable that fans could be cheated out of a proper Star Wars jag after a long wait twice in this way, once by Lucas and now by Abrams and Kasdan, but it’s happened.
I bet you every single Star Wars fan in the audience’s heart sank a little when they saw Poe putting the info into BB8. From that moment on, the suspicion that this would be a turkey was confirmed. However, because of its polish and excitement, we all went along with it for the ride. But as I’ve said, with increasing distance from the hype, this is going to be as hated as tPM. UNLESS they can really pull something out of the bag with VIII, in which case it will be forgiven as a glitch.
I’ve just watched some of the Clone Wars 3-d things - any one of them has more creativity, fun and emotional involvement than this hollow, plagiaristic dreck.
Whether it is or not, I’ll not reply so as not to give cause for a response either.
Let us, instead, talk about things like:
How I hope they introduce more ships than simply the TIE/FO and T-70 X-wing. Interesting progressions on those ships, but give me a next gen A-wing or B-wing please. How about a TIE Defender, those would be scary foes for our plucky band of heroes. While it wasn’t a big deal for this movie, the next one should have more ship variety please.
They didn’t have more ships because they thought people would be confused. They thought people would be confused. This movie obviously wasn’t for old Star Wars fans. And that’s why it’s doing so well. I was a bit harsh on that first viewing, but will probably enjoy it for years to come.
I do feel sad for people who seem to reach a singular conclusion on a movie, and then somehow apply that to EVERY aspect of the movie. Great movie—more rehashing than it needed. See? Things can be more complex than EVERY part of it sucked or EVERY part of it was great.
Exactly. I really like the movie. This does not mean I don’t find there to be flaws.
What rubbed me wrong about much of the hate was how tedious it was. Sonething using subtext instead of explicit reference? OMG such plot holz guyz! It’s not their opinion of the film that drove me nuts, but rather their insistence that every single detail was some major betrayal of some continuity or mechanics of XYZ, and how come you are’t railing against every single thing and how George never would have done this to us.
The thing is, this all started innocently enough. I think gurugeorge said he walked out of the movie mostly enjoying it. But when you’ve been line-by-line quoting with Andy Bates for two weeks, you’re really going to pick at it and look for more evidence of your simple criticism (at one time) that has been challenged. Now it’s an unmitigated disaster.
Philosophical question: if QT3 never existed, would the haters like the movie more?
That’s where it veered into nutty territory. I can appreciate all kinds of criticism against TFA. Hell, I have a few of my own. But the mental contortions needed to get to the prequels being better because Lucas tried really hard but failed is, well, it’s something.
I gotta add any opinion that defends midichlorians. Same with Jar Jar Binks defenses, though I think that one is hypothetical, because no one would ever go there.
