Star Wars: Episode VII: The Nerd Rage Awakens

[davejames]

Doesn't the movie have multiple male leads, too? I'm totally lost now. What's odd about casting another woman in a major role?

And damn, I hope the rumours are true. Love Tatiana Maslany.

Um, what's odd is that they're not just talking about another major role for a female, or another female lead (which would be perfectly fine), but "the new female lead" (singular)-- which is exactly what Ridley was considered to be in TFA.

Which is why I'm now a bit concerned for her fate.

Obviously there are still other explanations, like that Ridley was never supposed to be the real lead of the new trilogy, but at least on the surface it doesn't really look too good for her character, I don't think.

 

[JD]

Two female leads? That can never work. A movie can only ever have one lead per gender.
Or else those characters risk starting talking to each other about something other than the opposite sex, maybe even crack jokes or bicker with each other.
Unless one of them is gay, then it's ok.

Star Wars tried it once already and what happened? Luke kissed his sister!!!!
Eeew!

Same sex movie leads lead to incest! Qed

I don't have a problem with another female lead. The only reason I was wondering about Rey is the fact that they called the character the female lead, not a female lead, and they said the actress was doing chemistry readings with John Boyega, with no mention of Daisy Ridley anywhere in the article.

 

[Booji]

Doesn't the movie have multiple male leads, too? I'm totally lost now. What's odd about casting another woman in a major role?

And damn, I hope the rumours are true. Love Tatiana Maslany.

Um, what's odd is that they're not just talking about another major role for a female, or another female lead (which would be perfectly fine), but "the new female lead" (singular)-- which is exactly what Ridley was considered to be in TFA.

Which is why I'm now a bit concerned for her fate.

Obviously there are still other explanations, like that Ridley was never supposed to be the real lead of the new trilogy, but at least on the surface it doesn't really look too good for her character, I don't think.

A "new female lead" does not preclude Ridley from being a female lead in VIII. And yes, they are just talking about another female lead. No info from Disney has been released in regards to this so everything from the original Wrap article is nothing but conjecture... and it's extremely vague at that. We won't know anything regarding what happens with Rey until the movie comes out, so why get all flustered over casting rumors for the next film? You're really reading way too much into this.

 

[JD]

IGN has all of the toy reveals from this morning and last night.
It wasn't part of the reveal, but they also have a separate story featuring some of the clothes and accessories for TFA.

 

[RoJoHen]

Doesn't the movie have multiple male leads, too? I'm totally lost now. What's odd about casting another woman in a major role?

Methinks he was kidding.

 

[davejames]

A "new female lead" does not preclude Ridley from being a female lead in VIII. And yes, they are just talking about another female lead. No info from Disney has been released in regards to this so everything from the original Wrap article is nothing but conjecture... and it's extremely vague at that. We won't know anything regarding what happens with Rey until the movie comes out, so why get all flustered over casting rumors for the next film? You're really reading way too much into this.

Not sure where you got the idea I was flustered or freaking out about it. I was just pointing out that the wording in the article made it sound like Ridley was being replaced and that there was going to be a new main female lead.

And besides, "reading too much into stuff" is kinda what most of this thread is about anyway.

 

[Ithekro]

Captain Phasma is fine. They just don't use her first name...Becky.

 

[davejames]

IGN has all of the toy reveals from this morning and last night.
It wasn't part of the reveal, but they also have a separate story featuring some of the clothes and accessories for TFA.

Eh, the only TFA merchandise I'm interested in are the new Sideshow and Hot Toys 1/6 figures.

The Sphero BB-8 is kinda cool, but just way too small for the $150 price.

 

[Ithekro]

The Star Destroyer looks interesting, though I image Fantasy Flight will make one for Armada in the near future (Wave Three maybe).

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Han was slicing up a space donkey.

One does not have to be a trained kendo master to instinctively know how to hold a katana once fight or flight kicks in.

A couple of things:

In the SW universe, swords or sword-like weapons are far and few between, if we look at the OT & PT. That said, for the average person, there's no experience or cultural flirtation with swordplay, which is why Han's clumsy handling of the lightsaber was correct.

In real life, the one thing i've heard weapons experts say is that an inexperienced person trying to use a deadly weapon can pose as much danger to himself as the intended victim. Unlike the movies, one wrong move could be disfiguring of deadly to the user. I would think that rule applies in the SW universe, considering how dangerous a lightsaber is.

One last thing...Hamill said:

"George was adamant that these things were really, really heavy, that we couldn't take a hand off. We always had to have two, it was like Excalibur--40-50 pounds of weight."

Lucas:

"They were very powerful. they had a lot of energy in them, and so--you know, you worked with them as if they were heavy."

So, the intent was that lightsabers were not easy to use--certainly not without training. Since they were dangerous to almost over-the-top degrees, if an untrained person tried to use it as a weapon (not a clumsy slice like the Tauntaun situation), between the weight and its power, I imagine someone would make a bad mistake--or an experienced opponent would quickly disarm him, or turn the weapon against him.

He would be better off high-tailing it out of the area than using something he knows nothing about (if i'm to believe he's green at that stage).

That leads me to believe that clip says he knows something. I'm not saying he's at ESB-Luke level (highly trained), but in consideration of the intent of the lightsaber, it would seem to geeky-convenient for a total newbie to prepare to use the saber like...well, like he knew what to do with it.

 

[davejames]

Yeah using a lightsaber is not like just picking up a typical sword, and is something that originally required a lot more effort and concentration to control properly. Which is I think why they had Han looking so awkward with it in ESB.

 

[Tulin]

It's 7:14 Friday morning here - HAPPY FORCE FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tulin]

OMG This is SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Y2WfcCb4M

 

[DWF]

Im sure that whatever skill Finn has with a lightsaber is because the is guilding him, just as the Force enabled Anakin to destroy the Federation flasgship in TPM and Luke when he took out the first Death Star. Knowledge of whether or not Daisey Ridley will be in Ep. VIII is really a spoiler.

 

[Tulin]

Wha......?

Are you posting drunk again???

 

[DWF]

Wha......?

Are you posting drunk again???

I don't drink and Grevious was a cyborg not a robot. And I remember how upset people got seeing the soundtrack listing for TPM and seeing Qui-Gon's death as one of the tracks. Knowledge that Rey won't be in the next movie means something happened to her and it doesn't take a genius to figure it out.

 

[Venardhi]

There is no "knowledge" of any such thing. We know there will be a new female lead. Which means exactly and only that.

Yeah using a lightsaber is not like just picking up a typical sword, and is something that originally required a lot more effort and concentration to control properly. Which is I think why they had Han looking so awkward with it in ESB.

I always imagined that due to the forces containing the energy of the blade there might be some wonky inertia or the like, which force sensitivity could help to predict and mitigate.

 

[Dream]

We barely know a thing about the plot for TFA, but people think they already have VIII figured out?

 

[Hound of UIster]

We know quite a bit about TFA especially the first and second acts.

 

[davejames]

And there are people who've used their sources to piece together pretty much the entire plot as well, although I've tried to avoid reading too much of it myself (although the parts I have read are really really cool).