ST Leia’s Force Use in Space - Yay or Nay?

I previously added “I loved it” to the poll option that the OP said was meant to imply that. I’ve now also updated the thread title.

 

Oh Lord. :rolleyes

 

That's my answer for the poll.

 

The choice was to not show Leia using The Force in a violent way.
And perhaps, she had chosen to not use it at all. She was never going to. (Why? I'd love that explanation. It'd be a good examination of her thought processes)

But here she is going to die but The Force needs her to live. It protects her, and awakens her.

I know it looks odd. It's not an OT thing to do. But it is sort of PT. Anakin and Obi Wan are jumping about, ignoring the laws of physics all the time.

 

I like the idea. I do. Leia deserves a chance to display her capability in the Force.

However, the scene just can’t help but feel cheesy to me. Maybe it’s the “inspiring” music, or the fake out death, or, or that wierd pose she makes when she flies, but the scene just feels silly to me.

It’s not as bad for me as it was for some people, I can get over it, but overall, not a fan of this particular scene.

 

I think that had Leia's force knowledge been developed on screen before the flying scene beyond just "my sister has it" in ROTJ, the scene might have sat better with most people. It just seemed to come out of nowhere and it didn't look very good either.

 

The music makes the scene, to me. JW really knocks it out of the park there with the heroic Leia's theme. Really the cheesiness to me is the combination of the pose you mentioned and the speed at which she's flying through space. I can't remember if I heard it here, or if it was on a podcast (maybe Knights of Rant), but I think if she were a little bit closer to the Raddus the scene might have looked less cheesy. Anyways, similarly to you, It's not my favorite scene in the movie, but it's definitely not as bad as some people suggest it is. And Rian has come out and said that he knew the scene was going to be a stretch for a lot of fans. But I do really appreciate that they took the time to display Leia's force capabilities. I wish more people focused on Leia's greatest display of using the force rather than on how silly the scene looked, but you can't win 'em all.

 

There were so many opportunities in TFA to show Leia as a Force user that would be capable of doing something that it just didn't make sense. Plus visually, it's too much Guardians of the Galaxy. Seems like in that franchise someone eventually ends up in the vaccum of space and either dies or has to be saved. I half expected Rocket to show up at some point of the movie or that Rey will find an infinity stone inside the Anakin LS. Just felt out of place to me.

Lastly I thought that was a good way to close the character arc for Leia and they missed the opportunity. I fear CGI Leia in EPIX or worse that she dies off-screen in between the movies.

 

I voted for the first option. Since Leia is not a Jedi, unlike in the EU, she should be as strong as she can be, not only as a military commander, but also as a Force-wielder. I never really saw it as analogous to what Mary Poppins or Superman would do. I was simply impressed by the feat in and of itself.

 

Does her hand move prior to the move? I keep forgetting to watch for that aspect.

 

Yes.

 

Yes, her fingers twitch. I believe her eyelids might flutter as well.

 

Its ok. I voted for poor execution. Its the same argument as to when Indy nuked the fridge. Its a movie, and I can believe and previously believed Indy could survive alot of things - but the physics of that whole scene is ludricrous. I can let the lead lined fridge protect him from the blast go...but the tossing of him several hundred km's through the air and landing without pretty much dying...or at the very least having serious injuries is far too much for me.

I felt the same way here with Leia. Being exposed to the vacuum of space for a few mins...sorry...you are dead. She was unconcious. I hear people talk about Force bubbles and all that stuff...ok...but the filmakers then have to show me. I cant just accept it face value.

Why couldnt they simplify the matter by having her protect herself from being sucked out in the first place?...but that whole experience and lack of oxygen put her in a coma? Or just protect yourself from an explosion or something by pushing explosive material away?....something like that would have been better.

I know thats all fanboy crying...but it is what it is. I like that Leia could tap into Force powers. It was just shown poorly.

 

I'm neutral on this. I wanted Leia to use the force in the movie, so in that sense I'm happy, but I didn't enjoy the execution either visually or plot-wise, so it's back to neutral. I don't view it as a bad thing because Leia used the force, cool! It's just a " there" thing. If LF ever sees it as an opportunity to explore Leia's force abilities openly in the NEU, I'll freaking love it in hindsight. I've always felt that she would have continued to practice or meditate or something even if she didn't become a full-on Jedi. I thought that was a big part of the new lore - one doesn't have to be a jedi to be spiritual with the force. Unfortunately, Leia's force stuff hasn't been explored in the novels or comics that I've encountered so far.

 

This scene in the movie made me cringe because it seemed so unbelievable. It just didn’t look right and I’m quite sure that no one would be able to survive space for this long. To have Leia demonstrate her powers, which I’ve always been curious about, is a bit disappointing.


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I also liked the fact that it honed in that she can use the force which I think really helps the general audience

 

Unscandalized ("No feelings either way."). Obi-Wan demonstrated more power by disappearing. 75 kilos of matter converted to 'luminous being' in an instant, and no radiation is released - that's power. Leia accelerating at 1g over 200-300 meters, not so much. Leia showing no signs of decompression or exposure to cold, half way covered between impressionist tonal poem and indicative/declarative newly revealed Jedi ability. She was put into a coma which keeps her slightly from falling off the slippery slope into pure Marvel.

A comparison is (of course) that Luke and others can pull objects to themselves, and Vader (and Yoda and Dooku) could accelerate objects massing more than a human away from and at angles to themself (X-Wings, Bespin machinery, roof). Anakin levitates spheres and pears. Furthermore, Jedi in TPM required breathing apparatus to go great distances under water, and Qui-Gon was able to enter a deep meditation state under duress. I didn't read the thread. Maybe these were brought up.

We know Leia had the touch as early as Luke reaching out to her in desperation.

Edit: I recall that this event is controversial over the issue of training. The reason that didn't flag for me, I figure out now, is that Luke instinctively pulled the lightsaber to him. He had training in use of lightsaber and senses of surroundings, but not Jedi training in Jedi techniques of moving matter. There is of course a threshold of disbelief and Leia at 70 kilos and 60 yo versus lightsaber at 1 kilo and Luke 20 yo did not cross it.

 

I enjoyed it, and was happy to see Leia finally take an active role in using the Force. Perhaps instinct kicked in, allowing her to wield the power she always possessed. Its also possible her survival was the will of the Force, and she was awakened in order to realize this. With the loss of Carrie, I'm happy the director went this route, since we aren't likely to see the character in this capacity again.

 

This scene breaks the Force for me. The Star Wars universe has been well established at this point and we've never seen anyone else use this kind of ability and if that were the case, why didn't Palpatine fly back up the shaft Vader threw him down in ROTJ, why didn't Mace Windu jump back into Palpatine's office after he tossed him out in ROTS? We don't even know the extent of Leia's Force training and by the time the ST starts, it's nowhere implied that she developed her powers since the OT and if she's that powerful, she would've Force crushed Snoke's fleet. I would've just had the scene where the bridge gets destroyed cut out and have her be the one to lift away the rocks on Crait instead of Rey.

 

She's not flying against gravity--that's the difference. She just nudged herself.

 

She force pulls herself to the door is basically how I saw it.

 

And what would you then have done with Rey at the climax? And how would you have set up earlier in the film the idea that Leia could use the force in such a controlled, refined way? How would you have used Leia throughout the rest of the film? What would Poe Dameron’s mutiny have been like if he were railing against Leia, not Holdo? Who would have flown the ship into the star destroyer? What impact would these changes have on the themes of the film?

 

I feel the only transgression is that this act is not commented on later in the film by others or Leia herself.

If a new film came out three years after a Return if the Jedi then by all means I d say let’s see Leia be trained. But because that is such a cinematic event for one of our main protagonists, I’d say it shouldn’t have been saved for exposition thirty years later, or even an audience surprise... “aha! Leia is a Jedi!” So instead I think this was the best route to go, that she has suppressed it and finds her true power throughout the course of these films. I like that she’s not using any ability, it’s just out of her control... Luke reaching out to her during Cloud City or his surviving the second Death Star, or feeling Han’s death, or in the newest case getting distracted from command by feeling Kylo’s presence. I saw it that something told her to take that deep breath before the explosion and that’s it. And when she wakes up a moment later in space, it’s just that her hand is in that position and instinct tells her to get back to the fight, like she’s pulling herself to the ocean’s surface.

Again, the only problem I have with it is the follow up of her not wanting to talk about or just dismissing it, only to embrace it in the next film.

 

After first watching the movie, of all the complaints I expected to read, I did not expect to see self-proclaimed fans bashing and joking about this scene. Just the immature meme-like bashing of it (along with claims of a certain agenda) makes me defend the whole movie and almost even forget what I don't like about it. I don't know how people went from mourning Carrie Fisher to crying at Star Wars Celebration as John Williams conducted Leia's theme to making stupid remarks like "Leia Poppins" or "Carrie Poppins" as this stupid site put on its Instagram page or Super Leia/Space Leia. When people start bringing up real world physics to argue about her being in space (and some other scenes) then I wonder why they are even watching stuff from this Star Wars universe. Why don't TIE Fighters burn up going through the atmosphere? How can Luke make rocks levitate?? Why is the gravity the same on all the planets? Why isn't the breath of ugnaughts toxic to Lando? As far as Force abilities, people claiming this isn't "how the Force works" are another example of how inexplicably Star Wars fans get so attached to what they've seen in previous works and expect that to be the end-all, be all of everything Force-wise, Jedi-wise, etc. We're not going into these movies knowing everything and having seen it all. (Needa says "no ship that small has a cloaking device," and everyone thinks that is a fact and not just what he thinks, and people apply that "fact" to every small ship forever and ever in Star Wars time.)
No vote from me because the yes vote choice still makes fun of it.
Just as bad are people who think the rest of Fisher's performance should have been scrapped because of her death, which would have really messed up the movie since there was no dialogue or anything shot to support her loss and absence. You can't just work around that.