Saturday, August 6, 2016

The Legacy Lives On, Despite the Curse

Just finished reading the latest edition of the fandom than will not die, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

To start off you have to understand this is NOT a Harry Potter novel.  This is a special edition of the script for the play that is currently running over in the UK.  While Rowling had a hand in creating the story, the official playwright is Jack Thorne.

The play picks up right where the books and movies left us off, with Harry sending his son off to Hogwarts for the first time. Right away things take a noticeably different turn than what one would have expected and then goes to some places that seem out of place for the stories that led to this point. I had heard that it read more like fan fiction than Rowling's style, and I do have to agree with that conclusion.

There was a noticeable amount of finding ways to include a great deal of characters and scenes that seemed to be there because it is stuff the fans would want to see.  While the story itself is not bad all-in-all, there are some aspects that feel forced and a lot that seems to be in there just to give the fans their fangasms. A lot of it felt rushed (going through three years in just a hand full of scenes), especially in the beginning, leaving a feeling of plot holes being left and ideas that should have been resolved earlier in the timeline if one uses basic logic. If a family takes over three years to get around to dealing with problems like these, then that is one unhealthy family.

My curious nature, having done stage work and enjoying stage plays, left me really wanting to see the show mostly to see how they pull off all the needed effects on stage.  You name a spell seen in the books and movies, it is most likely here. There is a fight scene where with everything in the room flying around.  We have magic blasts flying every which way.  We have the Patronus spell being used.  We have Dementors flying about, doing their soul sucking.  Poly Juice Potion being used.  Ghosts and underwater scenes and just so much.  I am actually more interested in learning the stage of it all than anything else at this point.

It was very clearly a project done for the fans. The die hard Harry Potter fans are most likely going to love it just because it is the official continuation of the story, but it is not going to draw new fan in nor does it give anything to pull in anyone who didn't like Harry Potter to begin with. I found it enjoyable enough, but it was nothing special and could have been much better.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

My Theories From The Force Awakens

So by now the whole of mankind should have gotten out and seen Star Wars The Force Awakens.  Seriously by this point there is no excuse at all to justify not having seen it.  If you have been stranded on a deserted island for the last year, then you better get your act together and get caught up with society. I'll let you take a break for a few hours and watch it before you continue reading...

Ok, so now everyone reading this has seen The Force Awakens.

One big thing a lot of people don't seem to understand is that this was planned as the first part of a new trilogy.  That means they can plan out the story in a way that they do not need to give us all the answers right away. I actually like it that way, even though I have heard some complaints about how much was left unexplained. I'm a patient person for the most part and I can handle my story be stretched out. Of course if we hit episode 9 and there are still the same unanswered questions, then we have a real problem.

The big question is 'Who is Rey?'

I personally believe she is Luke's daughter.  I am going to put in here that I fully believe her mother is Mara Jade. Since they are already reintroducing Thrawn to the new canon there is no excuse why Mara Jade can't be in there as well.

Now to go into why I believe this and how I see the story going.

We know Rey is strong with the Force and the Skywalker lightsaber responds to her.  The Star Wars saga is so far the story of the Skywalker family and Rey is clearly the main focus of this trilogy.

Now here is my back story.

When Rey was born, Luke knew to keep her hidden, as there would be a great deal of folk out there who would go after her to get to him.  So he kept her hidden from the public eye.  My money is on only a few knowing her to be his daughter.  She did start Jedi training when she was a child and was most likely highly gifted.

When Ben Solo betrayed the Jedi and became Kylo Ren, Luke did some Jedi mind stuff on her to hide who she was and bury her Jedi skills, unless needed.  Then he had someone take her into hiding, telling her that someday her family will come back for her.

I am guessing things did not go as planned. Luke for whatever reasons was unable to retrieve her. There are many logical reasons as to why that could have happened.

Then Luke went into hiding, leaving R2 behind, one of the few beings in the galaxy that knew the whole story and had known Rey. R2 was to shut down until the time was right to find Luke.

So here is all I have seen to back this up.

Rey clearly had some impressive fighting skills from the get go.  Someone had to have trained her for that. When she gets a hold of a lightsaber she already seems to know how to use it.

The only times she displays Force skills is after another Force user attacks her through the Force. This really makes it look liker her Force powers at this point are a defensive action.  She seems highly surprised by these abilities, yet we know that level of skill has to be taught.

The timing as to when R2 becomes active again is when Rey is near him for the first time.  That really is the only noticeable new factor at the time he reactivates.  He could have been programmed to sense when Rey was near and get her to her father. This fits with the timing of it all.

I would bet Leia knows who Rey is.  She would be one person Luke would trust fully. It would also explain why Leia went to Rey after Han's death.  She was comforting her niece, her family (still wouldn't justify her not comforting Chewie, but that was just a poor directing choice).  But it would not have been her place to reveal anything to Rey.  She would know to leave that to Luke.

And Luke is clearly at a lost for words when he sees Rey.  What do you say to your daughter that you put into hiding years ago and for whatever reasons did not go back for?

So that is how I would be writing the story if it were up to me.  There would still be a few coincidences left in there for the story to play out that way, but that seems to be the way the Star Wars universe works.  You have to accept a lot of that and write it off as the way of the Force.