Same * SW 7 SP* (Off-Topic)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Saturday, December 19, 2015, 19:21 (3265 days ago) @ Avateur

You like Tatooine or whatever. Okay, set your story on a planet basically the same. You liked Luke's reluctance to go with Obi-Wan until fate forces his hand. All right, your character will do that too. You liked putting the fate of the rebels into the hands of a droid. Go for it. You liked Han Solo, but thought Luke was a drag. Good, Luke disappeared, and your story miraculously has Han show up with his ship. Darth Vader was totally cool, but he's dead, so you come up with a new guy in a mask. Part of the cool thing about Vader was that he was family of Luke. Shit, make the new guy Luke's nephew. The sacrifice of Obi-Wan was awesome, too. Let's kill Han for our sacrifice at the end. You loved the trench in Star Wars. Might as well put another one in this movie for no reason whatsoever. Okay, so we need another death star...but that's lame. This is a SUPER DEATH STAR. And the lightsaber the bad guy has is a SUPER LIGHTSABER. And at the end, unmasking Darth Vader was awesome, so you have the bad guy unmasked! Twice! The climactic battle in Empire where Luke and Vader never finished was totally sick. Then how he left, searching for a teacher to make him a real Jedi? Man. Amazing. Let's have new main character do literally the exact same thing.

I think this is one of those areas where it will be impossible to please everyone.

The cyclical nature of life is very much one of the core themes that Star Wars has always explored. Even within the original trilogy, we are made to see parallels between Vader and Luke... parallels which would then be expanded upon in the prequels (to varying degrees of success). So I get that The Force Awakens would revisit similar themes and situations. It is very much part of the core of Star Wars.

The tricky part is how far to take the similarities. Clearly, there are A LOT of super intense Star Wars fans. Fans who watch the movies on a fairly regular basis, read the books, play the games, etc. These fans know every scene, every plot point with intimate detail.

But then there is also the wider audience. Many people who consider themselves "fans" who might have only seen each movie once or twice, maybe even missed one or two of them completely. People who only have a vague memory of the exact plot, which events took place in which movie, etc. It's still important for these viewers to pick up on the theme of "life repeating" that is so important within Star Wars. And the similarities need to be somewhat bold or obvious in order for those viewers to notice them.