ST Analysis of The Force Awakens (Themes, Symbolism, etc.)

So light always overcomes darkness - and what better proof than the Starkiller Base itself?

The Base used the power of its nearby star to charge the huge laser beam, and the light is snuffed out when the star is fully drained - only for a new source of light to be born, when the doomed SB explodes and becomes a new star, replacing the one it drained out!


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This repeated theme of light being eclipsed by darkness is also mentioned in the script, during the flashback scene:

“A little girl. Rey as a child. She is sobbing, hysterical. Unkar Plutt’s meaty hand holds her thin arm. She is on Jakku, watching a starship fly into the sky, abandoning her.” Rey yells, “No, come back!” and Unkar Plutt responds, “Quiet, girl!” as the “ship flies towards the desert sun, which is strangely eclipsed, as if being eaten by darkness.”

 

That's another reason I think it might be Ben/ Kylo dumping her on Jakku before he leaves for the Beyond and Snoke.

 

If the DNA if either of those two films is being injected into Episode 8, I think we are in for (at the very least) a visual treat. Especially when you add in amazing location-shooting, such as Skellig, Kerry and Dingle. Cannot wait.

 

The Letter Never Sent could easily be Luke/Rey, while the other could be Finn, Poe, the new female character, etc.

 

The most tragic part, actually to me at least, is after he kills his father he doesn't feel better he feels worse. He is always going to feel that pain which was a metaphor for chewies blaster bolt to his side, and therefore since he will always carry that pain and some semblance of regret he knows he will always still feel the tug of the light, no matter what he does he can never feel "whole".

 

Just joined the forums. Great thread!

Loving the Arthurian connections. SW has always been rich in universal themes and TFA carries on that tradition.

The Missing King/Father concept really stands out. So many characters are fatherless/parentless. Kylo feels he has none, Finn was taken as a child, Rey is waiting for hers to return. But the idea that Luke has vanished is straight out of the Arthurian legend. Despite Luke's efforts to renew the Force his heart is broken (by his failure rather than by a cheating wife this time - unless Kylo having an affair with the Dark Side counts as his Guineviere?) and he has vanished leaving the Kingdom with no spiritual heart. The Galaxy has thus fallen into chaos and the FO has risen helped by traitor Kylo (Mordred?).

I fully expect Luke's first act in VIII will be to reject the sabre Rey is offering him. It belongs to her now and she will likely be the new chosen one to finally bring balance to the Force.

As for Symbolism, it's hard to go past Rey's name. It literally screams via word association that she is a 'ray' of light doesn't it.

 

Yeah, the Arthurian stuff is cool. Luke really is the Fisher King right? And Rey would be Percival?

 

Letter Never Sent: the last several shots of the trailer have this cool progression of forms, from lots of dots in the foreground (be they rocks, footprints or shadows) to a single set of prints in the snow, to a clean shot...all drawing the eye to the sun in the final shot. Very cool editing.

 

I think this has to have been deliberate, not least because it happens in Ireland (which is hugely appropriate, as the story of the Fisher King has its roots in Celtic myth). As I stated in my own review:

In many versions of the story, the Fisher King hands his sword to young Percival. But there are some where it's the other way around. The scene of the slumbering/ impotent Theoden receiving his old sword from the young and virile Eomer in The Two Towers, is also a clear echo of the Fisher King story.

There's some great subtext in this film. Anyone who calls it "lazy," IMO, do the filmmakers a serious disservice.

 

Great trailer. Visceral and organic. I loved those elements in TFA and look forward to even more of the same in VIII if this is the sort of thing they're striving for.

Regarding subtext: There is indeed a lot in TFA. What I like though, is that it's just that. Sub. It's not smeared on with a trowel to the extent that it interferes with the elegant lines of the film's surface.

 

It's also not a Deus Ex Machina in the sense that this "environmental event" is very much shaped by the human agency of the major characters who facilitate the destruction of the SKB. The geological collapse is shown to be driven by this destruction, and does not appear out of the blue, or as "a hand of God." The gully between Rey and Kylo may be symbolic, but its appearance is not a Deus Ex Machina because it both does not resolve the action (Rey had already defeated Kylo), because it is anticipated by the audience, and because it is precipitated by the human agency of the characters who are participating (including Rey, who was a key factor in the SKB's destruction).

ETA: All that said, Deus Ex Machina's are not always a bad thing - particularly in fantasy stories. They can give a sense of the sublime, as the "arrival of the eagles" do in the Lord of the Rings. And since destiny and fate are running themes in the Star Wars saga, such events are not inappropriate.

 

That is correct.

 

I think I agree also although for me surely any Deus Ex Machina should simply be called "Will of the force"

 

Great thread Artoo Dion. Excellent, excellent points raised by many here. I'll chime in once I've had some sleep after my husbandly duties of dropping my wife off at work.


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I think we can allow that

 

Clearly you are nice men and not a scoundrel.

 

That explains why Kylo suddenly became so vulnerable, the very moment he killed Han... Opening Kylo to that first attack by Chewbacca which injured him quite badly, before the final fight with Rey that resulted in a bloodied and scarred Kylo!

Contrast that with the confident and menacing person who ordered the attack on the Jakku village and used the Force to draw information on BB-8 from Poe...


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Love this thread. Some very very illuminating thoughts on here.

I think it's absolutely clear that Rey is tapping into the Dark Side at the end. And I do think this trilogy will show that she is more of a 'grey' than dark or light.

A major thematic element of the whole saga is family. And this trilogy is no different. But I really don't see redemption for Ben. I think he will try. But ultimately he will not be redeemed. I think that will be the theme of this trilogy. Some people can not be redeemed.


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Starkiller is a true manifestation of the power of the past

 

That's hardly a conundrum unique to The Force Awakens. Any time that art and commerce collide, the motives and intentions of the author become muddled. That's just one of the many reasons why it's best to consider those motives and intentions incidental to the process of analysis and interpretation.

Considering some of the statements that you've made here and elsewhere, I'm tempted to believe that such a problem may actually be an offshoot of contempt prior to investigation. But laying aside the fact that other viewers (or the filmmakers themselves) could fill up page after page with refutation of your finding, it need not be an insurmountable challenge when delving into the text itself. The author, after all, is dead.

 

One other thing, that's somewhat intangible.

TFA, for me, is almost deliriously joyful. There are too many examples to cite, but Finn's "that's one hell of a pilot!" amidst the horrible wreckage of Maz's (followed by Isaac's "woo hoo!") is wonderfully optimistic and hopeful, and played with such earnestness and glee by Boyega and Isaac.

That spirit pervades the film so much (through Rey, Finn and Poe, primarily), that I simply cannot understand the criticism of TFA as "not genuine."

TFA is "hope concentrate." No water added.

ETA: Incidentally, this is also one of the primary reasons why I prefer TPM to all the other prequels. While I don't think it's a good film, it at least has some heart.

 

Rey and Finn's mutual admiration and joy society after escaping Jakku is another example. Much like "we did it" in ANH. Good vibes everywhere!

 

This does not resolve a specific objection. Since so many people approve of your explanation, the odds seem extremely high that someone might have an answer to this, a specific objection. I've seen it 5 times. I will slow this scene down.

I get that the ground opening up was already put in play in the scene where Ren said, "I can teach you". I get that, visually, there's a lot of statistics to support that an additional fissure can occur nearby that affects the ongoing action or dialogue. I get that Jedi, Sith, non-Jedi, non-Sith and all flavors of Force users are good at standing on precipices.

So: Does this fissure come out of nowhere? No. There's precedent in time and current space. From a statistical standpoint is this fissure thoroughly improbable? No, not thoroughly. Would this fissure constitute a dangerous stunt for trained stunt people if it had to be reproduced in physical sets, because of the exceeding and dare I say cinematic delicacy with which the characters are removed in distance from each other, as if a manager of stunts was ensuring the continuity of Rey's state of mind? Yes. Does it look like this CGI-driven event is conducted with a cinematic delicacy, even inside the outer frame of cinema, as if a manager of stunts was ensuring the continuity of Rey's state of mind? Yeah, 5 viewings say yes. For that reason it appears, in sum, to be improbable in terms of space, convenient in terms of time, and therefore not above suspicion of having some deeper consequence (VIA the stipulations of the OP).

The sequence of events is that Rey is postured or posed or advancing on prone Ren. To all intents and purposes, Rey looks like she is going to or is mentally capable of killing Ren. I don't care that she has already defeated him. She has already defeated him. Rey has already, unmistakably, defeated Ren. In my five viewings that is abundantly clear.

What is not clear is if she has defeated her own potential for vengeance. Her face is not resolved, or freed of tension, prior to this event.

I recall that her expression was surprise. Meaning, her action in progress, whatever it was, was thwarted. Not, that her defeat of Ren, resulting in a halt of action, was validated by an environmental echo of a mental choice. Which is kind of what Raz Zaphon seemed to suggest, and did not survive my viewing after that.

Is my data, my recollection of her expression is incorrect? I'll be seeing it again. Is it possible she may very well have an expression of surprise and is being caught off guard by this event, but that doesn't matter because the only thing that matters, handed down from the authority of experienced film studies people, is that she defeated him and defeated him alone, and that is the truncation of thought permitted on this matter, and she is not to be paralleled, even at this stage, in this cinematic light and in this camera angle, after how many narrative and visual allusions, to Luke who had laid Vader prone on the ground and was faced with a choice of whether or not to follow through? For, Luke had been in discussion with Ben about killing his father.

Closing claim: There is some ingredient missing in that sequence of frames. She is surprised by the ground opening up. She was not ready for the ground to open up. She decided to do something different after the ground opened up. Did my eyes not see what they thought they saw?

 

The fissure opening up snaps her out of it.

For now, that's enough. She defeated Kylo but in doing so felt the lure of the dark side.

That is something to be picked up on by Luke (and Rian Johnson).

There is no Deus ex Machina there. She has resolved the climax at that point. There is no set up that demands "will Rey fall to the dark side?" be resolved. That moment appears to be set up for future episodes (temptation, not the chasm - unless Luke or the Force open that chasm to stop her falling to the dark side but there's no evidence in the film to suggest that).