Where’s Luke? Everybody wants to know and a bunch of new characters are here to help. And while Anakin’s gone, we still spend some quality time with family. Tom Merritt’s attempt to forget everything he knows about the Star Wars universe and embrace the story in episodic order.
Big thanks to Ryan for the graphic.
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Hi Tom
I hope no one reads this if they haven’t seen the movie yet. But i have a few thoughts I think Luke is in hiding waiting for Ray. First i don’t think the Millennium Falcon was left by chance it was left there for Ray to have a way off Jakku. I don’t think Han and Chewy found them by chance either they where waiting. I think but only 55% Ray is Lukes daughter the hug Leia gives her really wasn’t not a mother daughter hug but Leia knew who she was and cared about her. R2 was dormant since Luke left. We find this out when Han and Finn are at the Rebel Base. He doesn’t wake up till they come back and they had Ray with them. Ray presents was the reason he reactivated and give the last piece of the map,
Ok this is a big stretch but Finn may have Jedi ties to Mace Windu. A storm trooper going good it may be a seed planted to destroy the First order from within. I know big stretch.
Thanks for PIDASW and all the show you do.
Ronnie from Denver
Hey Tom, going to share a diverse view on the film in particular Finn’s portrayal. I hope anyone who is reading this takes it for what it is and if you liked the film or the character of Finn, it’s still ok. A lot of persons of color strongly identified with Finn when he was announced and now feel a bit letdown. I don’t know if you were alluding to that when you spoke about his character in this episode. Basically it seems as if Finn was there to provide comic relief and to push Rey’s story forward. He had no major wins during the film and was only motivated to help when Rey was captured and still she helped herself rather than be rescued. Now don’t get me wrong I loved Rey’s character and I think that both Daisy and John gave great performances. But for a lot of us POC we were looking for a badass character that we could identify with and Finn wasn’t it ….yet. Maybe his story will develop in future films but for this one we were given a coward soldier who was on sanitation detail. Overall I liked the film and I smiled at the end, but I really wanted the Finn I was promised ah well. Just wanted to give another viewpoint and I can’t wait for the next episode in 2017 or maybe you can look at the animated shows 🙂
Marlon “theGuyFromTrinidad”
Hi Tom. So I watched Ep 7 for a second time this weekend, then watched PIDASW. In between my first and second viewings I read a lot of internet chatter, so it was refreshing to see your review without all of that baggage. I do think you still approach the series a little more logically than me when it comes to the situations. Like why does BB-8 show people the map, and stuff like that. I tend to just let the story flow without asking why too much. Although along those lines, you gotta love the DRM in the Star Wars universe since no one seems to be able to copy digital data.
Overall, I liked the movie a lot. I didn’t really like Kylo Ren, though. He just didn’t seem scary enough. I think one of the biggest indicators is that no one ever suffered consequences for failure in the First Order, aside from some machinery in the room where he threw his tantrums.
I see Marlon’s point about Finn, but I’m crossing my fingers that his character will get better in later episodes. Along similar lines, I was really disappointed in the musical arrangement used to introduce Rey’s theme. Too princessy. She’s doing all this cool stuff in the desert, yet the music is all girly and princess-like. Just in case we forget she’s a girl. With all the praise the Star Wars series gets for strong female heroes, people often forget that before Rey, the two female heroes were both princesses. Male heroes can be pilots, knights, smugglers. Female heroes are princesses.
And Marlon, while Finn didn’t have any major successes in this film, the ones he did have were important, especially the ones involving firing guns in ships. But I also think there is some force at work in him, since he sometimes seems to blunder into success in the disguise of comic relief, much like Jar Jar and the young Anakin did in the prequels. I’m taking that as a sign that the force is with him, even if it’s not intended that way. And maybe that also explains how we was able to convince Phasma to lower the shields. Even though Han said “that’s not how the force works,” maybe it did this time.
Oh, and good thing Han gave the detonator to Chewie.
Tom, I have really enjoyed listening to and watching these episodes you’ve produced! Your approach to these movies we’ve known almost too well from childhood has been refreshing.
My familiarity with the subject matter makes it hard to take a step back and really see these stories for what they are and how they are constructed. You’ve given me a lot to think about, because you watched them episode 1 through episode 6, and that order in particular gives you a very different perspective on Anakin’s story.
Before I went to see The Force Awakens, I watched the old movies just as you did, 1 through 6. While I had not enjoyed the prequels when I saw them in the theaters, as much as I enjoyed the classic trilogy I grew up with, seeing them in that order particularly gave me a very different point of view, and I think a better one for approaching the new movie in the right mindset.
So thanks for the fresh perspective and I look forward to joining you in the next PIDASW! See you around the Frogpants ‘verse!
So glad you liked them!!