The Trailer Awakens

I heard a new trailer for The Force Awakens was released last night, so I thought I'd get around to watching it today and maybe post about it...ha, yeah, no, you're right, I watched it live on my big screen TV and then re-watched it about 15 times:  some by rewinding the DVR (that's right, I recorded the entire MNF game just to have the trailer), and some from my phone to get screen grabs to post on Twitter...so yeah, I've seen it and have been dissecting it in my head since then (even in my sleep, I'm sure, but I very rarely remember dreams), waiting until I had time today to regurgitate my thoughts onto the page (so to speak)...and now the time has come to do just that, so follow along on YouTube, and let's see if you agree, disagree, wish my swift (or perhaps slow) death, or want to be my best friend for life...



Rey is the Next Skywalker

At this point, I think it's nearly impossible to deny that. Now, I'm not saying she's the only carrier of the mystical, Force-born DNA of one Anakin Skywalker, and I'm not saying she's Luke's daughter (Luke and Leia are the exact same amount of Skywalker, so regardless of her parentage, Rey is equally Skywalker...don't get all patriarchal, fellas, just deal), but I am saying this:  the prequels were the story of Anakin Skywalker, the original trilogy was the story of Luke Skywalker, the sequel trilogy is the story of Rey (or maybe Kira?) Skywalker. She's the most prominent character on the poster (the theatrical one, anyway, the wide version I have posted here you could argue is dominated by Kylo Ren, even though he's off toward the corner), and she's the most prominent character in the trailer, which makes her statement that she's no one so brilliantly foreshadowing:  just another nobody from an out-of-the-way, desert rock, destined to do great things. I love how in the first few shots we get a sense of how humdrum her life is, and how she longs for something more...I'm curious as to who poses the question of who she is, and if it matters...it could just be someone on Jakku asking for our sake, to establish that she believes herself to be no one, or it could be a more pivotal point in the movie where she's about to be told she's more than she believes...

The First Order of Business

"I was raised to do one thing"...okay, so, if you don't want spoilers for the Servants of the Empire series, skip this section...anyway, I'm actually not finished with The Secret Academy yet, but I have read far enough to find out that a certain Commandant Hux (if you're paying attention to TFA character names, that should ring a bell) wants to start training would-be stormtroopers from near birth, the way the Jedi and clonetroopers were trained...does this line allude that he succeeds in his plan, albeit long after he'd hoped and under the watchful eye of his son, perhaps? And, if that is the case, what happened that left Finn with "nothing to fight for?" What I'd thought was a fairly cut-and-dry backstory for Finn, he saw the evils of the First Order and decided to defect, seems like it's actually a little more complicated...

"I will finish what you started" (grandpa)

Yes, I think Kylo is also a Skywalker, but I don't necessarily think he and Rey are twins. I'm starting to lean toward Kylo being Luke's son who went dark, to follow in his grandfather's footsteps, and Rey is Leia's daughter, who is sent away to Jakku to try to deny her destiny...perhaps a new prophecy is discovered that details tragedies at the hands of the descendants of the Chosen One...or perhaps the senate votes to outlaw training Force users because they're seen as the cause of all the evils of past decades, and that is why there's no New Jedi Order (oh snap!) and why it seems like the Force is once again spoken of only in whispers...but, the problem with that theory is that, surely, Luke would have passed on the story of his father's return to the light which somewhat nullifies the idea of following in his footsteps...it may be that Rey is the sole Skywalker in this portion of the saga, and Kylo Ren is simply a devotee to the fear, anger, and hatred that Darth Vader represented...I wonder what it is he thinks Vader started that he's vowing to finish:  conquering the galaxy? Eradicating the Jedi? Seizing absolute power? Once again, every new morsel begs nearly infinite questions...

"That's no moon..."
It's a planet! That's right, folks, I don't think it's Death Star #3 in the poster, I think it's a huge weapon carved into the ice planet of Starkiller base that sends beams of destructive energy perhaps through hyperspace so that the First Order can wreak havoc on its enemies from the comfort of home...if you look past Kylo and out through the viewports of what I assume is his command vessel when he's saying, "nothing will stand in our way," you can see a slow-moving beam that I believe emanates from said weapon.

And I think the scene immediately following Poe Dameron being tortured is a brief glimpse of what happens when that beam makes contact.

"Its true, all of it..."
I can't tell if it's just Han Solo speaking, or the gravity of what he says, but in both trailers his lines are the ones that bring the moisture to my eyes. As many have already mentioned, the fact that it's Han revealing that the stories about the Force are true in the very ship that we first hear him shrug the Force off as a "hokey religion," is immensely powerful and brings about that pure nostalgia that, for those of us that truly love the saga, can't be contained and must be allowed to flow out in some form or fashion. But the real question here is why isn't the Force being celebrated as it should? Why isn't the story of how the Empire was defeated one of those common core stories that's passed down to every child from every family in the galaxy? Something big has happened for the group that formed the New Republic to go from commonly exclaiming "may the Force be with you," to seemingly denying its existence...where are you, Luke, and what have you done?

Introducing the Knights of Ren

Notice there are seven. Are they an allusion to the seven deadly sins? A nod to Seven Samurai? Or do there just so happen to be only six people in the whole galaxy that can stand to hang out with Kylo Ren? I am insanely curious as to the details of this strange group/cult/club/etc. I have my own theories about them, but I'm almost positive I'm wrong (mostly wishful thinking), so I'm really looking forward to learning more (including where I need to go to join).

"Just let it in"
Things really ramp up in the last bit of the trailer, so, as with the Force, you just have to sit back and let it in. Every glimpse of footage is remarkable, but I'm going to pick a few choice moments to comment on, the first being a distraught Rey:

It looks to me like she's crying over someone in a brown jacket...could it be Han? Finn? Does our ex-stormtrooper die in his battle with Kylo Ren? Does Han step in and pay the ultimate price to once again save the day? I'm hoping I'm jumping to conclusions and it's none of the above, but I have a bad feeling about this...

Here we see Rey showing quite a different emotion...one that I'd say is quite dangerous for a Skywalker..."Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." I wonder what prompted this anger, and who will be made to suffer...

This could very well be the most striking image of the entire trailer:  a aged princess with no home for which to be queen in the arms of a man that's always been king of the world in his own mind...there's immense sadness here, and, yet, comfort...familiarity...home. There's more I could say, speculations I could make, but, honestly, I feel like that's enough.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, it appears The Force Awakens will include a lightsaber duel. I like how Finn starts off looking angry and confident, and then his face betrays that he begins to succumb to fear and doubt...this should be an interesting battle considering both are presumably novices, and, of course, because I'm dying to see the cross-saber in action...I wonder, though, why Kylo has his helmet off...was it simply knocked off in another part of the fighting that lead to this moment? Did he remove it as a big reveal before calling Han "uncle?" So many questions...the next roughly two months can't pass quickly enough...

So, that'll do for my musings on this final trailer for The Force Awakens. Overall, I like how they built on some scenes that we've seen before while sharing some new, tantalizing information. It certainly looks like we're in for one hell of a ride when December 17th finally rolls around...I successfully purchased my ticket last night, so you can be sure that I'll have loads to say once I've seen it, but, of course, my post will probably come a week or more after it's been out and I've had a chance to see it several times to really take it all in...in the mean time, though, there's a lot more Star Wars coming our way, and it's a pretty safe bet that I'll be posting about several different things before the movie finally comes out. So, go watch the trailer a couple (dozen) more times, and, until next time, may the Force be with you...