Thanks for helping me identify what was bothering me about TFA - sense of the scale. It's what killed the Star Trek reboot for me (actually, I was out after the giant canyon in Iowa).
The worst parts about the Star Trek reboot, for me, were 1) when Abrams clearly and beyond any shadow of doubt established that the Klingon homeworld is somewhere farther than Mars' orbit, but inside Jupiter's - and 2) that humans on Earth can't see the moon.
Why does the ENTIRETY OF THE REPUBLIC consist of only four planets, on which are docked 100% of all Republic ships, all in the same star system, all within easy viewing from the surface of a *fifth* planet that just happens to have all of our heroes but isn't part of the Republic?
Huh, I could have sworn their were five. Now I want to rewatch.
WRT to the map, and a trail to follow: the Empire has a history of deleting all records of information--I do remember that from movies that predate the current in-universe events by maybe sixty-eighty years, even if the only other things I really remember are an anti-smoking ad and General Grevious's style--space is really really big, and even if there isn't something special about coming in exactly that way--
Star Wars is about the journey. Star Wars has always been about the journey.
, I could have sworn their were fiveFour, five, doesn't matter. There are *tens of thousands* of Republic Senate seats, each representing either a planet or a group of planets. And the entire Republic navy does not land on a planet while in port and does not all sit in port simultaneously
( ... )
There are *tens of thousands* of Republic Senate seats, each representing either a planet or a group of planets.
I thought the Senate was disbanded in A New Hope?
I don't remember the details of the context, but I went looking and I found the quote "The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I've just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away." I remember that, and it left me thinking:
What's currently the Republic isn't the Old Republic, the great arena full of people that cheered Jar-Jar on, thousands and thousands of planets strong. It's whatever the New Republic turned into over the last ?thirty? years as the whole Republic-ing thing apparently didn't seem very important, and I am honestly not surprised if a bunch of members (and I don't know how many there are!) are stepping back saying "well, we didn't expect that. Fire from the sky and planets ignited, my word. Reconsidering options now
( ... )
She has a starmap of a tenth of the galaxy. There's a missing spot.
No. The missing spot *is* a tenth of the galaxy.
The map that leads to Luke, the super-important piece that they fight over for the whole movie, covers a tenth of the galaxy. The bit that R2 produces at the end of the movie is the other 90% of *the whole freaking galaxy*.
On that map, covering 10% of the Galaxy, is the "X Marks The Jedi" spot. And also a whole freaking lot of reference stars.
Finding those reference stars, and thus which 10% of the galaxy that is, and thus where Luke was, should have been trivial. Maybe they have to put it on hold because, hey, Starkiller - but 3POs line about "we don't have enough information" is stupid and wrong. It's yet another clear example of JJ Abrams doesn't understand numbers, distances, times, navigation, maps, or anything about the universe, and R2's emergence with the rest of the map was pointless.
My bad, I assumed the whole-starmap-R2D2-projected was "a tenth of the galaxy" because it didn't strike me as impressive enough to be the whole galaxy.
That said, "we need the map because otherwise we'd be have to look through a tenth of the galaxy to find a Jedi that doesn't want to be found" seems even more sensible than if you only need to look through half of one percent of the galaxy. (It fits with the First Order's tack of "get it if you can, but destroy it if you can't", too. If they can't get to Luke first, they can at least make sure that Leia probably can't find him either.)
Agreed R2D2's emergence with the map was technically pointless, but in terms of R2D2 re-emerging, totally worth it. (And dammit, everybody-gets-to-show-up-to-assemble-the-map-and-get-Rey-to-the-final-scene is not narratively pointless! Possibly not executed as well as it could have been, but not pointless.)
Poking at the Star Wars wikia says something about the New Republic being in the hundreds [...] I confess I have limited time to go down that rabbit hole and anyway it wasn't in the movie.
Even if it's "hundreds", it's still much more than FIVE. But yes.
the poking online I've done since seeing the movie suggests that all three factions mentioned (republic, resistance, first order) are splinter factions, and thus on a much smaller scale than the empire in the original movies. and the 5 planets destroyed were supposed to be the new seat of the republic (notably, not coruscant) which were all in one system (!?). I don't have sources for that, unclear if what I read was official or speculation.
I really wish they'd explained the political climate a bit more though--I don't get what is going on, galactically. I haven't read the aftermath book yet, perhaps that will help.
Well, they were *blatantly* all in the same system, and also in the same system as the planet Finn and JakeRey were on. And also *super-close-together*. Like, "should be causing significant tides" close, because they're so clearly visible, in daylight, by the naked eye.
Oh, and: Aftermath doesn't cover this, although the other prequel novels might. I haven't read them, because they're not Chuck Wendig and I wasn't *that* interested.
yeah, the closeness pulled me out of the film, which was annoying.
good to know not to expect that from aftermath. Apparently Wendig is scheduled to write a number of books filling in backstory, so that's cool. Haven't read anything of his (that I remember, anyway) so good to hear he's decent.
I thought a lot of the spaceship sequences were well done, cinematically if not with internal consistency. The one exception was the Falcon flopping around like a fish anytime it got near to the ground. Knocking a radar dish off the ship in a near-miss is how you create suspense. If the the ship bounces around like a hockey puck any time it's inside ground-effect, it gets dull quick.
My gut level reaction to the movie was sadness because I miss a lot of the EU stuff (Zahn mostly, but also Stackpole stuff, cuz xwings). But beyond that some things felt off--thanks for enumerating them here.
I was sitting in the theater trying to remember if you could move instantly between systems in the original movies and confused as to how they got information across systems instantly. (they're charging the starkiller in another system but know about it already, & can get there in time? how??)
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Basic. Math. Errors.
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Huh, I could have sworn their were five. Now I want to rewatch.
WRT to the map, and a trail to follow: the Empire has a history of deleting all records of information--I do remember that from movies that predate the current in-universe events by maybe sixty-eighty years, even if the only other things I really remember are an anti-smoking ad and General Grevious's style--space is really really big, and even if there isn't something special about coming in exactly that way--
Star Wars is about the journey. Star Wars has always been about the journey.
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I thought the Senate was disbanded in A New Hope?
I don't remember the details of the context, but I went looking and I found the quote "The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I've just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away." I remember that, and it left me thinking:
What's currently the Republic isn't the Old Republic, the great arena full of people that cheered Jar-Jar on, thousands and thousands of planets strong. It's whatever the New Republic turned into over the last ?thirty? years as the whole Republic-ing thing apparently didn't seem very important, and I am honestly not surprised if a bunch of members (and I don't know how many there are!) are stepping back saying "well, we didn't expect that. Fire from the sky and planets ignited, my word. Reconsidering options now ( ... )
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No. The missing spot *is* a tenth of the galaxy.
The map that leads to Luke, the super-important piece that they fight over for the whole movie, covers a tenth of the galaxy. The bit that R2 produces at the end of the movie is the other 90% of *the whole freaking galaxy*.
On that map, covering 10% of the Galaxy, is the "X Marks The Jedi" spot. And also a whole freaking lot of reference stars.
Finding those reference stars, and thus which 10% of the galaxy that is, and thus where Luke was, should have been trivial. Maybe they have to put it on hold because, hey, Starkiller - but 3POs line about "we don't have enough information" is stupid and wrong. It's yet another clear example of JJ Abrams doesn't understand numbers, distances, times, navigation, maps, or anything about the universe, and R2's emergence with the rest of the map was pointless.
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That said, "we need the map because otherwise we'd be have to look through a tenth of the galaxy to find a Jedi that doesn't want to be found" seems even more sensible than if you only need to look through half of one percent of the galaxy. (It fits with the First Order's tack of "get it if you can, but destroy it if you can't", too. If they can't get to Luke first, they can at least make sure that Leia probably can't find him either.)
Agreed R2D2's emergence with the map was technically pointless, but in terms of R2D2 re-emerging, totally worth it. (And dammit, everybody-gets-to-show-up-to-assemble-the-map-and-get-Rey-to-the-final-scene is not narratively pointless! Possibly not executed as well as it could have been, but not pointless.)
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Even if it's "hundreds", it's still much more than FIVE. But yes.
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I really wish they'd explained the political climate a bit more though--I don't get what is going on, galactically. I haven't read the aftermath book yet, perhaps that will help.
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Oh, and: Aftermath doesn't cover this, although the other prequel novels might. I haven't read them, because they're not Chuck Wendig and I wasn't *that* interested.
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good to know not to expect that from aftermath. Apparently Wendig is scheduled to write a number of books filling in backstory, so that's cool. Haven't read anything of his (that I remember, anyway) so good to hear he's decent.
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I was sitting in the theater trying to remember if you could move instantly between systems in the original movies and confused as to how they got information across systems instantly. (they're charging the starkiller in another system but know about it already, & can get there in time? how??)
Also, yay Honor Harrington reference.
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