Tuesday, December 29, 2015

More Than You Could Imagine

I was driving home from Plano, mulling over these complaints that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is just a retread of the original 1977 movie. So I decided to make a mental list of all the things in the movie that we've never seen before in any Star Wars film. Because I'm nerdy like that.

Anyway, here it is. Please correct me if you can think of a single example of any of these things in the first six films.

1) a rolling ball droid
2) a hot-shot pilot who's a major character and also with the resistance when we first meet him
3) stormtroopers making a landing for a ground assault
4) a Force user who can freeze blaster bolts and paralyze people
5) female stormtroopers
6) a stormtrooper taking off his helmet
7) a stormtrooper breaking conditioning
8) a full explanation of where stormtroopers come from
9) a woman as the central protagonist
10) a fully formulated economic ecosystem based on scavenging the wreckage of a galactic-scale war
11) humans who have learned to understand the language of astromechs
12) the inside of a wrecked Star Destroyer
13) people on a desert planet being thirsty (!)
14) self-rising sponge food
15) good guys flying a TIE fighter
16) TIE fighters strafing civilians
17) someone having to get the hang of piloting a spaceship
18) atmospheric spaceship combat
19) Han Solo actually smuggling something (!)
20) Han Solo listening to Chewbacca and treating him like a partner instead of a pet or underling
21) the interior of a large civilian spacecraft
22) fighting alien monsters aboard a spaceship
23) someone who is sexually attracted to wookiees
24) a female general
25) a planetary-scale weapon being fired with a view from the surface that shows its beam taking up the entire horizon
26) a Force user who can read minds
27) a Force duel that's entirely mental
28) a sun being sucked away into darkness as the visual and thematic backdrop to a high-stakes dogfight and an even higher-stakes personal confrontation
29) a human female wielding a lightsaber
30) a female with a speaking role who is a Force user


Did I miss any?

6 comments:

  1. I felt that a naive force user who realizes her power and then sets out to test its limits and sort of teaches herself about what she could do was new. Also, a female character who is mechanically adept is new--until now, Han and Chewie are the only characters with mechanical skills.

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    1. Leia does some electronics stuff in Empire, but then Han has to help her turn the whatchamadoodle to close the panel or something, so maybe that doesn't count.

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  2. The movie was not horrible but to say it was ground breaking or a fresh perspective is a stretch. Anyone over the age of 35 felt like a kid again watching it and it might have been mildly entertaining to kids, but that is all I can give it.

    1. Wrong - Droidekas, also known as Destroyer Droids or ROLLIES!!
    2.and...
    3.Revenge of the Sith Storm Troopers were dropped everywhere
    4. There are over 70 Jedi and Sith powers - lets not get too excited
    5. The clones where all boys
    6. First 6 movies all were clones - and in attack of clones lots of helmet off scenes. Helmets needed to be on too confusing without.
    7, Clones where trained from birth, no nurturing
    8. Attack of Clones was pretty comprehensive
    9. Yes..?
    10. Okay
    11. If you say so..
    12. Neat
    13. Luke Skywalker is a moisture farmer on Tatooine - might be thirsty
    14. Give you that one - Cool
    15. Jedi Starfighter ROTS version—Similar in design to the Empire's TIE fighters
    16. Ewoks don't agree with this statement
    17. This is not a plus for movie, side note Anikin untrained climbed in a fighter and blew up Droid mother ship. FIRST TRY!
    18. Cloud city does not count?
    19. Besides people?
    20. Okay..in all their years together he never used Chewbacca's gun? Seriously
    21. You might want to watch the opening scene of the original
    22. This is a racial slur and I will have no part of it
    23. Yuck
    24. The mythos has other female generals on both sides
    25. okay
    26. See jedi powers comment above
    27. Yoda and Dooku do - couldn't resist
    28. And they still can't protect the vulnerable points
    29. getting a little racey again
    30. Nope this one is a miss again - Aayla Secura was a female Twi'lek Jedi Master who served as a Jedi General (psst. female General)

    31. Sorry this is your brother-in-law I could not resist poking you with a stick.

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    Replies
    1. Uh, way to make me think my niece was being a total nerfherder, dude. Use your own login next time!

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  3. I don't have a google account and she uses my computer. I'm afraid I am the only nerfherder here, love ya bro and have a good day!

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    Replies
    1. Well, next time lead with your ID! I would have found it much funnier the first time through if I'd known it was you!

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