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Scene 2 If you remember the last trailer, there was a clip from inside one of the Imperial ships. It showed a lot of people running around, blaster/laser fire, and a single TIE floating in the background, possible the one doing the firing. Add that to Finn's quote about joining the Empire and losing his way, I think he knew/found out the Empire was going to attack the planet (or something of the sort), and then he said "fuck it," blew some shit up and took off.

The next clip after (last trailer) was his TIE wing exploding, possibly a laser cannon shot from the Imperial ship.

So, he crashes... and personally escalates the invasion.

Rey's parentage: I'm still voting for the Solo family, so that means she's probably an HRD, and her parents are R2 and C3PO. I'm never right about these things.

 

Baseless spoilerific speculation

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I'm still going with Rey as a Solo.

Popped in my head earlier, and I can't get it out. What if Kyle Ren is Luke's son? Luke started to train him, Kylo started to go dark, Luke clams up, eventually goes into hiding out of fear of the possibility of him falling too. Fits somewhat with the whole theme of Luke struggling with it in the OT, as well as Anakin. And Kylo had a line about "OUR destiny" when there was a shot of Vaders helmet.

I dunno. Long shot, but it's stuck in my head now.

 

Samuel Black:

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I dunno, I think one "I'm your father" revelation is enough for the series XD

Edit:

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My money is still on Kylo Ren being a clone of Anakin Skywalker. This was mostly spawned by his hair being similar, but also fits with "our destiny".

 

I agree, but the symmetry does tickle me a bit.

I never even considered that possibility. I like it.

 

A good point I came across while watching reaction videos to the new trailer:

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It seems highly likely that Kylo Ren has prior familiarity with Rey, because why would he not immediately chop off her head unless he knew her?

Lots of people thinking Rey and Kylo Ren are siblings. I hope they aren't. One of the biggest things I dislike about the post-ROTJ EU is how incestuous everything is, with so many key players coming from either Luke's family or Han and Leia. One child is enough, I think. Let other people have prominent roles. The galaxy is a big place.

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Oh, and another thing:

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Is anyone else getting the impression that Rey's staff is significant? It's appeared so often, and she seems very attached to it. There was a scene in the new trailer where she seems to be going to some effort to retrieve it. So I think it either has some emotional significance to her or is mission-relevant. And the end of it does look vaguely lightsaberish.

Edit:

Also, there's something about the way Rey says "I'm Rey" that I just love. <3 Daisy Ridley.

 

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It is, but at the same time, I expect them to keep 'Episode' films focusing on Skywalker family. While it may not be Kylo, I suspect that the younger generation will not have just one representative.

 

I think the reason the plot focuses on the Solo/Skywalker family is because Lucas made such a big deal about these particular families being miles ahead of everyone else in terms of Force Mastery. So for there to be a random Joe Bloggs who can compete with someone from a Force dynasty doesn't sit well with most.

 

I didn't realize before that Finn has Anakin's lightsaber that Luke loses on Bespin.

WHO FOUND IT AND WHEN

 

It kinda bugs me how... unstable Kylo Ren's lightsaber is.

Hope there's a reason for why it's so... The Force Unleashed about its design.

Son of a bitch. Kylo Ren is Galen Marek. Somehow

 

I think one of the pieces of the staff is Anakin's saber, it's been dormant/broken for a while, find Leia, pop goes the jedi, working lightsaber.

 

I remember reading somewhere that Kylo Rens Saber is so unstable because he never had anyone show him how to build one. He was working from half finished plans and blueprints.

 

Goddamnt I refuse to watch that trailer. Commencing media blackout for the next month.

 

Do it. So worth it, if only for hearing BB-8 and Rey chatting. Dooooo it.

/wave *this is the trailer you were looking for*

 

Ho ho ho. Ya koo tocha ka poonoo nee sok nyee.

 

Wired had a long interview with J.J. Abrams about the making of Episode VII. It went a long way to relieving my worries about the film. Some key quotes in the spoilers.

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"I didn’t want to enter into making a movie where we didn’t really own our story. I feel like I’ve done that a couple of times in my career. That’s not to say I’m not proud of my work, but the fact is I remember starting to shoot Super 8 and Star Trek Into Darkness and feeling like I hadn’t really solved some fundamental story problems."

"So I tried to not forget the mistakes I’d made, but I also tried to focus on things that I find inspiring about cinema. I asked questions like “How do we make this movie delightful?” That was really the only requirement Larry and I imposed on each other: The movie needed to be delightful. It was not about explaining everything away, not about introducing a certain number of toys for a corporation, not about trying to appease anyone. This has only ever been about what gets us excited."

"The script for VIII is written. I’m sure rewrites are going to be endless, like they always are. But what Larry and I did was set up certain key relationships, certain key questions, conflicts. And we knew where certain things were going. We had meetings with Rian and Ram Bergman, the producer of VIII. They were watching dailies when we were shooting our movie. We wanted them to be part of the process, to make the transition to their film as seamless as possible. I showed Rian an early cut of the movie, because I knew he was doing his rewrite and prepping. And as executive producer of VIII, I need that movie to be really good. Withholding serves no one and certainly not the fans. So we’ve been as transparent as possible."

"There’s a very real issue with doing this movie: Every detail, whether it was the design of a costume or the music or a set-dressing choice, must be embraced as coming from Star Wars. You’re inheriting Star Wars! That’s not something you can do lightly. You have to really understand the design choices, because everything is important. At the same time, it’s just Star Wars, meaning: It doesn’t make it automatically interesting just because it’s in that galaxy."

"You know the moment when you reconnect with someone after years apart? You see the lines on their face, you think, oh, they’ve lived 10 years! Or when you see someone has a scar they didn’t have—physical or emotional—you recognize it. It lets you know it’s not two minutes later. It was important that Han Solo be Han Solo but not feel like he’s playing a 30-year-old dude. When you’re 70, you will have lived a different set of experiences. That has to be apparent in who he is. Harrison was required to bring a level of complexity that a 30-year-old Han wouldn’t be required to have."

"We knew we weren’t just casting one movie—we were casting at least three. That, to me, was the biggest challenge. When we met Daisy Ridley, when we found John Boyega, and then Oscar Isaac and Adam Driver came aboard, we got really excited. And yes, Daisy and John could work together, but what happens when Harrison’s in the mix? What will that feel like? If it doesn’t spark, it’s a fucking disaster."

 

You know that terminal superfan guy whose final wish was to see TFA before he died? The Twitter embraced #ForceForDaniel and managed to get Disney and J.J. Abrams to give the guy a private screening.

He died yesterday, 5 days after seeing the movie.

SW fandom, you are now almost as cool as HP fandom.

 

So here's my final speculation for the plotline. Putting it in spoilers because some references to Japanese trailer.

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Background: After the events of ROTJ, the Empire didn't collapse. Rather, there was a period of chaos as different factions of the Empire attempted to fill the power vacuum. The "First Order", the Empire's elite Special Forces, emerged victorious from this struggle to control the Empire, but their control isn't as absolute as Palpatine's was. The Rebellion (now called the Resistance) controls a few systems, and maybe there are a few other post-Imperial factions which are independent of the First Order.

Now, on to the plot of TFA. Rey and Kylo Ren are the children of Han Solo and Leia, both of them are force sensitive. Kylo Ren found out about Darth Vader being his grandfather in his mid to late teen years and, fed up with a life as a rebel, defects to the Imperial cause with the ideal of continuing his grandfather's legacy. After Kylo's bad reaction to the truth, Han and Leia decide to keep Rey ignorant. She is hidden away by her parents on a remote planet to protect her from Kylo Ren and the life of the Resistance.

Stuff with Finn happens (perhaps he learns a secret which he is not supposed to know concerning a First Order plan to deal a deadly blow to the Resistance), he meets Rey, the First Order attacks Jakku in search of Finn. Han Solo and Chewie take the Millennium Falcon back from some gangsters and race to rescue Rey and Finn from the First Order attack.

Rey is told about the Force, but the viewer still doesn't know that Kylo is Rey's brother (though Rey does know this). They then take on a the dual quest of trying to contact Luke and stopping the attack that Finn has told them about.

They can't find Luke, the attack begins on a forested planet. Battle occurs. Finn and Rey end up in a forest with Kylo Ren. Finn isn't force sensitive, but he ends up using a lightsaber to try to fight Kylo Ren (and fails miserably). Kylo Ren then has Rey at sword point and we get the reveal that they're siblings.

Luke shows up. Luke and Kylo Ren fight and Luke has significantly more skill with both the lightsaber and the Force. but Luke does not seek to kill Kylo. He wants to turn Kylo as he did Vader. Luke reveals to Kylo that Vader turned, but Kylo doesn't believe him. Kylo escapes.

Something something Chewbacca, something something Poe.

 

Do you read spoilers or look at concept art? (I get all of mine from Making Star Wars, but there are plenty of places with more info)

 

I basically look at everything except interviews.