Spoilers ahead (as the title implies), as I dive into giving my thoughts on the SW Episode 7 plot and explaining it along with things that I notice many either complained about or didn't get.
A Major MISSED plot point!!!
It has been 30 years since the events that took down the Death Star version 2.0 and The Emperor.
In that time much has happened evidently, and The Force Awakens does a great job to throw us right into it.
From the go, the title crawl at the beginning of the film sets it all up with keeping it simple and to the point, explaining what is going on as well as bringing some questions forward to the table to keep the story interesting.
There have been complaints by quite a few people on how this is executed, with claims that it does not do a great job explaining what happened between Star Wars 6 (Return of the Jedi) and now.
I strongly disagree. I think it does a perfect job explaining what is going on, and I am leaning towards people missing out on key plot points in the film that explain this all.
What is going on? Well, it is quite simple really.
The Emperor has been overthrown (pun intended). The Rebellion has won. This does not mean that the Empire Remnants are all destroyed, and aside from this being logical we are also told this is the case in the film, it is not an assumption.
From the ashes of that conflict, from the ashes of the Empire, the First Order is born. From that victory, the New Republic is also born, which was kind of the whole point to the victory in Return of the Jedi. And this is all quite evident on the go.
What events exactly went on and played out is besides the point completely. It is a back-story. We are tossed into the thick of it, and that is not a plot hole at all. Was it a plot hole for A New Hope?
Lets look at this and lets look at story telling in general.
When you are introduced into a story or world, are you told of the history to that world/universe or do you learn some of it from the events that take place? The second is the proper means to go about it in story telling.
In a new hope we are not told how Leia is a princess, neither what she is a princess of. We are not told how the Empire came to be. We are not told how the Rebellion came to be. We are not told anything really.
We are simply tossed into it and we take it as it is and become a part of the journey on a personal level from the point of view of the characters we see.
The Prequels (Star Wars 1 to 3) were a back-story plot, and not really a proper story telling. This was one of the gripes people had with it. Too much plotting and politics involved and too much story explaining, etc. Unavoidable to a point I would think as this is what people wanted to know and telling a history is not always easy neither as intruiging.
No one had a problem with the classic trilogy however, and that is a good place to take hints from in making the new films. From the original trilogy (4 to 6 now) we gather the following information- The Empire is, as any Empire would be more or less, a dictatorship. The Rebellion is fighting for the right of the Galaxy to bear its own individual voice on each end of it in each Star System.
The Emperor dissolves the last remnants of the senate during the classic trilogy, and from that we also gather that the Empire is not completely established and still rather in the making. We are hinted that Obi Wan, Old Ben Kenobi, has lived in the time of the republic, the time before the empire, before the dark side, in the time of the clone wars.
And that is all we are really told from the films about the history or backstory to Star Wars. The details do not serve the plot of a film. They serve the possibility of books, comics, side films, shows, and even games, as a form to expand on that history and explain it whilst keep the films in tact.
The Force Awakens does a great job to explain the following (which is all we need to know for the story period really).
After the events of Return of the Jedi, Luke sets out to create a new generation of Jedi so that the ways of the force are not lost, instead they are passed on to future generations.
Among his students is the son of his sister Leia Organa/Skywalker and Han Solo. The young Ben Solo. Thus his nephew.
One of his students we find out turned against him and destroyed this new "Jedi Order". We also find out he was Ben Solo himself, who we also find out was turned to the Dark Side by Snoke. Ben Solo, is Kylo Ren, the big baddy of SW7 and evidently a main cog if not the main cog in bringing the First Order into power under Snokes leadership.
Luke at this point feels responsible and like he failed. Not only the "good guys", not only the entire galaxy as he helped bring the new Dark Side into power instead and accomplished the exact opposite of what he was intending, but he also failed on a personal level. He failed his sister, he failed his friend Han Solo, he failed his own nephew, he failed himself. He failed them all.
Understandably he goes into hiding. One could also assume he thought he was capable of doing more harm than good and aside from bitterness he went into exile to also protect them all.
What was not explained? The how exactly is irrelevant, as it was irrelevant in A New Hope how The Empire and The Emperor exactly came into power and what events happened and in what order. The main picture is given, set and explained. Same thing as The Force Awakens.
We find ourselves in a place were the New Republic has been established. But obviously it is not the leading power in the Galaxy.
From the information we gather and throwing some logic into it too, The Republic is not at direct war with the First Order neither are they openly trying to destroy them. Such an action would imply that they are not a Republic at all, and the First Order, like any organisation, system, or what not, has one could say the right to exist and cannot be destroyed pre-maturely.
That is basically the point to a Republic. It is not an Empire. A system or planet could enforce its own defences and amass its own military power, as we also saw in the prequels with Naboo. No system is forced into the Republic, and that is the freedom for which the Rebellion fought for to begin with.
The First Order in the absence of Luke Skywalker and unchecked, is obviously up to no good. What seemed as only the remnant of the empire, has been hard at work on the Starkiller planet (or whatever its real name is/was), secretly turning it into a base and a new improved Death Star.
The First Order has obviously been starting to rile things up, showing that it has the intent of creating an Empire again. We also gather from the speach that General Hux gives that the systems are not all aligned with the Republic, but not all with the First Order either. There seems to be a division. The Republic at this point supports the Resistance, a fighting force that is aiming to take down the First Order.
This was also implied, in the same speech, that the Republic has been "lying" to everyone (we can assume it has been lying on the basis that it is a peace keeping organisation that opposes war) since they are secretly aiding the Resistance.
To recap. The New Republic is on the surface, and perhaps in practice as well, about freedom and peace. Seeing that the First Order has grown in power and a threat to this peace, they want to take them out or stop them. This can mess up with the fine line of peace and freedom with their alliances created, so they back up the guys that are willing to be known as the fighters against the First Order, the Resistance, instead of openly waging war themselves.
Because at that point, they just destroyed all the leading planets that are forming the New Republic.
The impact of what really happened for most people in that scene went completely absent attention, because they were perhaps too busy comparing it to A New Hope.
That event actually changes the situation as we know it, as this was the Death of the New Republic, right there and then.
It was probably downplayed a little, and perhaps it could have been handled with a little more obvious attention. But for whoever followed the key points of the speech, along with Finn after that saying "it was the Republic, the First Order, they have done it", they would see that it is quite obviously a shocking moment.
When I saw it I was quite moved for what it implied. I was thinking "wait, did they just destroy the New Republic? SHIT! Did the old Rebel Alliance just lose everything they ever fought for to create?" I simply couldn't believe it. I heard people say "yeah they just blew up like 5 planets, who cares" and I was thinking, "ummm... they just blew up the New Republic. Who cares?"
This makes for a pretty heavy moment in the plot. Although we are not attached to these planets, we are in one way or another attached to the New Republic. That is supposedly the good guys we have been following all this time. And they were just wiped out. For fans (which shrugged the event off like it was nothing) these are the guys they have been on the side of for 30 years!
Were this leaves us is in a galaxy of turmoil once again. Republic allies would be shattered, First Order allies would be strengthened, and the resistance was left alone.
After that, the next target is the Resistance, for which the coordinates are discovered. The Resistance blows up the Starkiller Base, and we are left with a form of balance in all the sides. The First Order, although still powerful, has lost their weapon. The Resistance has lost the Republic, etc.
This could be seen as a convenient plot, as it is a way to get rid of the same plots that governed most of the old films. Empires, Republics, and what not. It can help to balance things out, as well as shrink some aspects to make them more personal.
Convenient? Perhaps, perhaps not. In one way this helps solve more problems than create them. We are not thrown into the events after this, we are thrown into something we can expect and easily understand. A Republic, a Resistance, an evil First Order. Jumping into the story after the pre-mentioned events would much likely mix things up and make everything confusing. Having at that point the characters refer to the First Order rising in power and destroying the New Republic would have been much worse and unneeded to the plot ahead. Actually seeing it was a much more effective way to go.
This also explains why the First Order weapon was existent and built all this time to begin with. No one knew of it. It was never used and it was not known that they had this power in their hands. When it strikes we see the terrain (trees) around the location of the beam get destroyed as well, further adding to the whole notion created so far that it had not been used before. As soon as the Resistance gets a hold of what is going on through seeing the attack and information from Finn, they act immediately to destroy this base.
I don't find any problem with how the story was told, and seeing a fair few of fans out there mentioning things the likes of "they didn't do a great job telling us what happened in those 30 years" I shake my head. Those 30 years are not The Force Awakens and the story we are experiencing, they are a back story.
We know all we need to know as the events all play out simple and in an order that makes sense.
The New Republic is formed.
Luke is in hiding after he failed with his teachings and created Kylo Ren.
The First Order rises to power.
The Resistance is a military group backed by the New Republic to fight the First Order.
The First Order destroys the New Republic.
The Resistance destroys the First Orders weapon which they spent all this time building.
What is not to get?
On more personal character notes, Han and Leia split up after their son turned to the dark side and became Kylo Ren. Snoke is the main villain behind it all. Kylo Ren completes his journey into being "accepted" completely into the dark side by killing his father. Everyone is looking for Luke, the Resistance to get his help, and Snoke to kill him. Rey is very strong in the force and we do not know her origins. And that is the end of it.
There were few things the film left out aside from things that we evidently shouldn't know yet.
Like, who are Reys' parents? Why is the Force strong in her? Who is Snoke? How did Maz Kanata get the lightsaber. And that is it. Maz herself says "that is a story for another time" and it really adds nothing to the plot right now aside from trivia. Having this explained at another place and time in a story to which it makes more sense and is more fitting is the proper way to go about it rather than have Maz Kanata sit there and babble on about how she got it. Isn't that the kind of thing that annoyed people in the prequels?
Lastly, sure there are questions that rise. And a lot of these questions might actually be explained but they also might not.
In A New Hope, we had no idea who Lukes parents were aside from a great pilot and friend named Anakin Skywalker. We had and still have no idea who Han Solos' parents are, or Poe Damerons' and we hardly care right? Even Anakins parents were of little importance in the end.
Reys' parents could very well include Luke, they could be completely different people, she could be an offspring of another family known or unknown to us. Or, we might never get to know who they are.
These questions obviously do not break the film, instead they make it. The notion some had that "a film should stand on its own" was not true for A New Hope, so why should it be true now?
In the first Star Wars we ever saw, Obi Wan was dead, and yet Luke began hearing him during the last scene against the Death Star. Vader was tossed into space but left alive. The Emperor was never even introduced. None of this was explained in A New Hope. As far as back story goes, what were the Clone Wars? What was the Republic? And so on. So many questions rose from the initial film as well. Yet, it was of no consequence to the film itself aside from creating even more interest.
A film works great when there are questions in it that do not break the story of the film itself, and that is what The Force Awakens has achieved in the same way that A New Hope did, but I would dare say even better.
From here on we move on into points that will be covered in my proper Spoiler Review. Were I will get into explaining the ending, Reys character and evolution, Kylo Ren, and more.
I will also make more direct comparisons to the originals as I will treat it more as a review as well as an explainer and my thoughts on the film. For this section, the idea was to simply make the main "galaxy" plot with regards to the First Order, the New Republic, the Resistance and some main characters clearer for those that might have missed out on something.
Once more, that is all for now, until next time. As always hope this was a great read and may the force be with you all ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments...