Star Wars Episode VIII anticipation thread

[chorpler]

@GuanoLad

I like how the teaser mirrored the initial one for The Force Awakens, with Luke’s voice similar to Snoke’s, the appearance of Rey similar to Finn’s pop up into shot, and the weird ships on the red desert like the x-wings over the lake.

Red desert … is that what that was? Initially I thought the ships were dumping blood or something.

[Mahaloth]

Good Morning America asked Rian Johnson if “Last Jedi” was plural. Here is their exchange.

RJ: It’s so funny that people started asking that when the title was announced, because I had never even pondered that question. That seems to me, like, the most-
Reporter: Basic question ??
RJ:- or uninteresting I guess ?
Reporter: Oh, it’s interesting alright!
RJ: (laughs)
Reporter: It’s interesting! So singular or plural ?
RJ: Erm, look, in my mind it’s singular.
Reporter: It’s singular ?
RJ: In my mind it is, yes. Absolutely, yeah.
Reporter: And the last Jedi would be Luke.
RJ: W-err-well if you say so.
Reporter: And he says it’s time for the Jedi to end.
RJ: I’m gonna take your word for it. I mean they say in The Force Awakens, you know, Rey’s going to find the last temple of the Jedi, and Luke is the last… Luke is the last Jedi.

[GuanoLad]

@chorpler

Red desert … is that what that was? Initially I thought the ships were dumping blood or something.

I think so. It looks like a salt flats or something, with a thin crust and a deep red powdery sand or mud just beneath the surface. It probably has no significance beyond looking pretty cinematographically.

[FlikTheBlue]

I like the theory that Luke will train Rey to use the force, but not in a way that follows the old Jedi teachings. Maybe Rey will learn how to use both the light and dark sides of the force without being corrupted by the dark side. We could end up with a new school of force users that use both sides of the force.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

Sounds reasonable. No reason any new order of light-side Force users have to call themselves “Jedi” - or if they do, no reason they can’t change the rules to avoid the problems that ultimately led to Palpatine’s rise and Order 66.

[Darth_Hamsandwich]

@FlikTheBlue

I like the theory that Luke will train Rey to use the force, but not in a way that follows the old Jedi teachings. Maybe Rey will learn how to use both the light and dark sides of the force without being corrupted by the dark side. We could end up with a new school of force users that use both sides of the force.

Great Scott! I love this idea. There are so many ways stories could be based off of mastering the duality of the Force. The training montage(s) are going to be pretty friggin awesome, and perhaps with a slightly humorous edge to them, I hope.

[Alessan]

@FlikTheBlue

I like the theory that Luke will train Rey to use the force, but not in a way that follows the old Jedi teachings. Maybe Rey will learn how to use both the light and dark sides of the force without being corrupted by the dark side. We could end up with a new school of force users that use both sides of the force.

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe Luke has come to the conclusion that the dark side is a natural reaction to the light side - if one exists, the other has to as well - and that the only way to stop the cycle is to merge the two sides together.

[Darth_Hamsandwich]

@Alessan

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe Luke has come to the conclusion that the dark side is a natural reaction to the light side - if one exists, the other has to as well - and that the only way to stop the cycle is to merge the two sides together.

I wouldn’t mind that treatment at all. In fact, that’s pretty much the riff taken from the Dark Crystal which was made only two years later after ESB. That would squarely give a much welcome jolt of 80’s memories geekout sweetness, right there! (along with Krull, Beastmaster…)

[Biffster]

@Dallas_Jones

It is a teaser.

When Luke says, 'Its time for the Jedi to end", there is only an implied period after ‘end’. That is probably not even the whole of Luke’s statement. It is the time for the Jedi to end…something.

Rey is clearly the Last Jedi, or the next iteration of what follows the Jedi. She is the next generation of Jedi, for a new generation of movie viewers. If not there is no reason to ask her what she sees. Light and darkness no longer matter, Luke has given up. I do not believe that for a minute.

The old Jedi have died off or have been killed. The next Jedi will be this strong, independent, woman, who will not let the old Jedi light go out in the universe. The poster is very clear, it does not end here. The old major players are being retired, taken out of the action, but not the mythology of the Jedi history. This was very apparent in the last movie, The Force Awakens.

Or maybe Luke is the Last Jedi and we can just wrap up the whole multi million dollar franchise and go home.

Which do you think is more likely?

Maybe it’s a Harry Potter sort of thing; in order to end the Sith and bring balance to the Force, the Jedi has to end as well, like the way Harry sacrificed himself to destroy Voldemort.

[Darth_Hamsandwich]

I’m getting a pretty big Pai Mei training session alert going off from the second Rey’s face comes on the screen.

Either that, or something was revealed to her that she is having a terrible time coming to grasps with. Sort of like when Metatron revealed to Bethany that she had the power of Christ in Dogma.

[FlikTheBlue]

I think the origin of Snoke is probably going to be the most difficult thing to explain and keep the continuity of the established canon. What do you all think will be the explanation for why he wasn’t even mentioned during episodes IV through VI? The only explanation I can come up with is that he’s really Darth Plagueis and that Palpatine didn’t finish him off when he thought he had. Why else would such a powerful figure not have played a role during the original trilogy? The only other explanation I can come up with is that he is actually only in his 20s or 30s and just pretending to be old. What do you all think?

[Biffster]

@FlikTheBlue

I think the origin of Snoke is probably going to be the most difficult thing to explain and keep the continuity of the established canon. What do you all think will be the explanation for why he wasn’t even mentioned during episodes IV through VI? The only explanation I can come up with is that he’s really Darth Plagueis and that Palpatine didn’t finish him off when he thought he had. Why else would such a powerful figure not have played a role during the original trilogy? The only other explanation I can come up with is that he is actually only in his 20s or 30s and just pretending to be old. What do you all think?

I think, like Qui-Gon Jinn said, there’s always a bigger fish.

[Alessan]

Maybe he’s an ancient evil, recently awaken. Or maybe he’s from outside the galaxy.

There a trillions of intelligent beings in the universe. Not everything has to be about the same dozen or so people.

[Biffster]

@Alessan

Maybe he’s an ancient evil, recently awaken. Or maybe he’s from outside the galaxy.

There a trillions of intelligent beings in the universe. Not everything has to be about the same dozen or so people.

It would be interesting, in real life, if we could contact even ONE of them.

[Chimera]

Well, in Rebels we have the Inquisitors, and they’re the ones taking force sensitive babies after the Jedi are gone, so there are, by A New Hope, plenty of non-Jedi force wielders around. I don’t have any issues with one of those having gained sufficient power to take over the First Order while never having been mentioned in the original trilogy.

Plus, please remember that not every student at the Jedi Temple grew up to be a Jedi. There are thousands and thousands of other force-sensitive people floating about in the Star Wars universe.

Edit to add: Oh, and the Inquisitors reported to Darth Vader. So if Snoke was an Inquisitor or one of their people, he would have been known to and familiar with Vader.

[Chronos]

Snoke is powerful now, but it’s mostly political power. There’s nothing to indicate that he’s particularly strong in the Force. He probably held some relatively boring position in the Empire, and just found himself in the right place at the right time to seize the reigns. After all, someone had to.

[Alessan]

@Chronos

Snoke is powerful now, but it’s mostly political power. There’s nothing to indicate that he’s particularly strong in the Force. He probably held some relatively boring position in the Empire, and just found himself in the right place at the right time to seize the reigns. After all, someone had to.

Maybe, maybe not. The series needs a Big Bad, after all, and it’s not going to be some whiny bitch who already got his ass kicked by an amateur. SW is epic fantasy, and someone needs to be the dark lord. If not Snoke, it’s going to be some other super-powerful (wizard) Force user.

[Quartz]

@Chimera

Well, in Rebels we have the Inquisitors, and they’re the ones taking force sensitive babies after the Jedi are gone, so there are, by A New Hope, plenty of non-Jedi force wielders around.

Rebels is set only a few years before ANH, so those babies will not have had time to grow up. That said, they will have had time to grow up by the time of TFA.

[Darren_Garrison]

@Biffster

I think, like Qui-Gon Jinn said, there’s always a bigger fish.

Summon bigger fish!

[Elendil_s_Heir]

You might have bigger fish in your pool, or you just might have these:

http://www.whatonearthcatalog.com/cgi-bin/hazel.cgi?action=DETAIL&ITEM=CU9352
http://www.whatonearthcatalog.com/cgi-bin/hazel.cgi?action=DETAIL&ITEM=CU9342