The Force Awakens - Spoilerific Discussion.

[Gotthammer]

[eldargal]

Reysma ship ftw.;p

[Morgrim]

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People have pointed out that this stormtrooper takes Finn's actions very personally. Apparently that's explained! It's in the novel Before the Awakening by Greg Rucka, which is about the stormtroopers and how they're raised.

[url=http://nerdgerhl.tumblr.com/post/136227153099/fatcr0w-dorianthewellendowed-fatcr0w]Nerdgerhl[/url]

Greg Rucka’s Star Wars novel Before the Awakening is A) Quite good and B) Explains much about Finn’s stormtrooper training and social circle leading up to the movie.

In a nutshell:

• Finn was trained in a squad of four boys: Him (FN-2187), Nines, Zero and Slip.
• Nines and Zero have nicknames based on their alphanumerical designations (Zero’s is FN-2000, likely used by the ficcer mentioned above, Nines ended in 9s, etc.). Slip was called slip because he was a ****up.
• Turns out, most troopers have nicknames
• Why does FN-2187 not have a nickname? Because nobody really likes him. An older trooper tells him straight to his face: he’s an outsider. It just happens to some troopers.
• Why is this extra tragic? Is it because Finn’s a ****ty trooper? NO. He’s actually top of his little trooper class. He’s the ****ing bomb, with a blaster, with tactics, with hand-to-hand weapons. Phasma’s got extremely high expectations for him. (what a ****in mary sue amirite)
• So why is this actually extra tragic? What’s Phasma’s one problem with him? Finn cares too much. He cares about keeping his squad alive.
• He cares about going back for his friends more than the mission objective SOUND FAMILIAR?
• So Phasma tells him to stop coddling Slip or face consequences. He does.

And then: the skirmish on Jakku. A trooper dies and Finn loses his final shred of faith in the First Order. Who is that trooper? PROBABLY SLIP, IT REALLY SEEMS LIKE. Basically Finn’s brother, even if he never really fit in with his squad.

And then: the first thing Poe does is give him a nickname based on his alphanumerical designation JUST LIKE HIS TROOPER FAMILY, NINES AND ZERO AND SLIP, WHO NEVER LIKED HIM ENOUGH TO GIVE HIM ONE.

IN CONCLUSION the trooper in the gifset above who recognizes Finn on sight (and who has been meme-nicknamed TR-8R) is likely Zero or Nines.

IN CONCLUSION finn my bby D:

[Erik Setzer]

That actually makes a lot of sense...

[YorkNecromancer]

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It's been pointed out in other places, but the Stormtrooper with the electro-tonfa?

Should've been Phasma.

She does nothing in the film except for capitulate to Solo and Finn far too easily to come off like a badass. How hard would it have been to give her that fight? She'd've looked cool, it would further have established that she takes Finn's defection personally, and the feud between the two characters gets built up further. Then, when they get her on Starkiller Base, he steals her electro-tonfa when she's not looking, giving her a reason to give in without a fight - she believes he's got a lightsabre, and knows she can't fight him without her anti-sabre weaponry, thus making her capitulation a sign of teeth-gritted resentment, rather than weakness. It also sells the sabre as a significant, terrifying weapon - which it is in the right hands. Everybody wins.

'If it wasn't for that lightsabre of yours, you'd be dead now'.

Instead, we get this jabroni Stormtrooper show up that no-one's invested in, he makes Finn look like a punk, and there's no feud because the Stormtrooper's completely faceless. Just a no-name Jabroni. Giving him a fully-developed backstory in the expanded media just makes me angry, because the film is all that should matter.

It's just wrestling booking: the heel has to come off stronger than the face. They should've build up the angle slowly, to make the audience salivate for the main event which they can only see at PPV (read: in later films). As it is, he's already beaten her and with no effort, so what emotional investment do I have in seeing them fight again? I know he can beat her. Now the writers have to set it up all over again, only now it's an uphill struggle because Phasma already tapped out, so we know Finn can beat her; there's less emotion, because he's not got to work as hard.

Plus, if they pull a 'she was acting under orders as part of a Machiavellian plan' card, it just makes the villains look dumb. What, they whole thing was an INSANELY complex scheme to get Kylo Ren to kill his dad? At the cost of ALL THE FIRST ORDER'S MONEY WHEN STARKILLER BASE GOES DOWN?

No, she tapped out too soon, which means she's not a credible threat any more, end of story.

Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the film overall. It's just Phasma was poorly booked through the whole film. If Kylo Ren is your monster heel, your Brock Lesnar, she should've been the Undertaker - this fearsome, implacable beast. But she wasn't. She was jobbed out to no meaningful effect, and the women who plays Brienne of Tarth deserved much, much better.

[Tyrendian]

pretty much exactly what I was thinking during the movie...

[Lexington]

There are a lot of instances where the prequel trilogy is not consistent with the portrayal in the original films.

One of the many reasons that it's best to just ignore the prequels, something I'm very glad this movie more or less did. Besides being awful and contradictory, they make no sense, narratively-speaking, with the originals. Why spend two movies leading up to the huge revelation at the end of Empire when you've spent six or seven hours of screen-time giving the audience that same information? It's silly.

It's been pointed out in other places, but the Stormtrooper with the electro-tonfa?

Should've been Phasma.

Oh my goodness, yes.

[Mud Duck]

I don't know York, yes she was underused, but knowing when to fight and 'tap out' is really a good bad guy thing. And when the good guys have a blaster up under your chin, well.....

"Next time Gadget! Next Time!"

[Arkhan Land]

I'm sure well get a good deal on her next in the next movie

then again maybe shes just getting maul-ed

[Morgrim]

The prequels are not terrible. They're not worthless, they're not pointless, and it pissed me off when people say they are. They're just not the "hero's journey" that the first 3 Star Wars films are, that the audience expected. They're a love story intertwined with the tale of someone who is downtrodden and tries so hard and no matter WHAT he does, no matter how hard he tries, he's always told he's not enough. He's not allowed to be passionate. He's not allowed to fix things. He's told the status quo is God, and trying to change that is evil, until the pain finally pushes him over the edge and into the arms of the one person that's told him he has worth. And it's an abusive relationship between Anakin and Palpatine, it's one Palpatine has groomed him for for years, but it's really not at all surprising.

It's also not surprising that a lot of women can empathise with characters in the prequel trilogy more than the original trilogy.

[url=http://batsutousai.tumblr.com/post/136207088419/a-list-of-unpopular-opinions-about-star-wars]This explains it better than I can[/url]

So my entire ****ing life, I hid my love for the prequels because I knew aggressive fanboys would shove their parrot-opinions down my throat if I said something simple like, “I really relate to Anakin.” In fact, I posted this on Facebook a couple days ago, and I immediately received an all-caps comment that said, simply, “THE PREQUELS ARE UNWATCHABLE.” Not the polite, “I disliked them and I’d be interested in discussing it with you,” but a blanket face-slap fact. You are wrong for your opinion. I am right. Shut the **** up.

Here’s another reason I think people (men) hate the prequels:

Anakin’s plight wherein he is constantly silenced, dismissed, and forced into obedience until he snaps is more relatable to a teen girl’s life than a boy’s. What I’m saying is: the prequels–launched in plot by a teen girl queen, not a princess needing rescued–are for girls. And that alone is why nobody likes them: it’s a girl’s story.

[...]

It’s ****ed up. Because Luke’s plight is parallel but different. Luke is privileged by his own innate perfection. He possesses no internal struggle. From the death of his family onward, he is imbued with purpose and direction, and he actively (as opposed to Anakin’s passivity forced into action) seeks out his own fate. Even when he says, “Don’t underestimate my powers,” to Jabba, he says it with confidence, but when Anakin tells Obi-Wan the same shortly before his downfall, it’s an, “Oh, honey,” moment. Anakin, by contrast, is seen as arrogant in his self-assurance. He did everything everyone told him to do, and he failed.

All six films have ample flaws. The original series is rife with pacing issues. Return of the Jedi is so campy it might as well be a children’s cartoon. The Phantom Menace has more plot holes than Doctor Who. The prequels’ dialogue needs some serious editing.

But I’m finally going to say it, loud and ****ing clear, and there’s no going back:

I like the Star Wars prequels better than the original series.

In my opinion Revenge of the Sith is the best film out of the seven so far, but when I've said that I have gotten death threats from people who claim the prequels are terrible. So hearing people on BoLS say they've got no value is unpleasant.