ST Lupita Nyong'o (Maz Kanata) in Episode VII

Oh cool! I did not know that. I loved that scene. It was like watching Jim Henson doing a SW creature scene. Neal Scanlan did all the creatures and he studied under Henson. You can see his influence in that scene. There were even a couple of creatures that reminded me a bit like Skekses from The Dark Crystal.

froog, SW is rife with phallic symbolism.

 

Alright; I'm stepping in here after seeing all this arguing and baiting going on. Let me remind those of you who are doing this that you should argue with the point; not the person. Insults and repeated baiting behavior with result in bans and the thread will be locked.

Now get back on topic.

Edit: I also know im not a typical mod for this section as I help run SWTV and SWC, but no one from this section was around and I stepped in to help out.

 

Maz was an excellent addition to the story. Smart, fiery, able to hang with the scum and villainy.....and trusted by our heroes.

The complaints about her not "giving up" the Skywalker saber to someone other than Rey are unfounded. None of us know the true relationships. But watch it again -- after their initial conversation, Maz asks Han, "Who's the girl?"

She knows.

Excited to see where Maz will go in the rest of the ST. She'll be a player in unlocking many of the mysteries.

Very satisfied with her character.

 

I thought she was a fun addition to the Star Wars universe. She was quirky, fairly informative and she left when she was no longer needed. Take notes Jar Jar!

 

Was she entirely CG or did they use a person in an outfit and just do a CG head?

 

Just want to say on behalf of all the 7SA mods we stand behind SI's edits and warnings. Anymore tonight and I will be happy to deliver Christmas bannings. Get it in check guys.

 

I fully agree. She was the biggest letdown in the show for me as well. It was like they were trying to recreate a Yoda type character and failed. In fact I disliked everything about the cantina too. It was the one scene I just disliked in totality.

 

I really liked Maz but you could tell that whole part of the movie was sliced and diced. It was not at all the way MSW described. There was no scene where they all held hands and Rey left abruptly. Actually, they never alluded to why Han went there in the first place. She had the light saber and Han didn't know it. What was the significance of Maz?

It was a homeage to Han visiting Lando in ESB and then the enemy comes. It was also a homeage to the cantina AND Yoda, but her actual purpose never really came up and we never see her again.

Something was REALLY out of place and lacking in that scene. I would hope there's an extended version of that section of the movie that comes up in deleted scenes or more preferably in a director's cut.

 

Han said Maz could get them a clean ship.

 

Yep. One that couldn't be tracked. The FO appears to have superior tracking capabilities.

 

The best explanation of why and how Maz came into possession and didn't reveal the light saber to anyone else(assumedly).

 

I loved Maz. I thought her CGI was good, her voice and personality fantastic.

 

I really like Krueger's thinking here, too. I also thought, if I remember correctly, that Rey didn't appear to actually unlock or unseal it in any way. At first I found that very odd, but then I thought it might be interesting if all Maz had was an old box. Perhaps she could sense something special within, but didn't know what it was or how to open it. Then Rey comes along and destiny unfolds.

I doubt very much that's anything like the story we'll eventually get, though. My point is really just that one of my favorite things about TFA is that things are open and mysterious. Anything can still happen. Enough is left to interpretation and 'just cus' logic that I can see kids enjoying playing with action figures, telling their own stories with these characters. To be honest, the prequels, for me, felt like the 'contained' and 'restricted' some of the magic I felt with Star Wars as a kid.

I am amazed by the creativity of George Lucas, and it was interesting to see the Senate, Coruscant, the Jedi Order – so many things! But I did feel the Force became less mystical. Maz really brought some of that spirit back from me. She's quirky and free, more like Yoda in ESB, which is my favorite Yoda – he's crazy!

I also felt a huge twinge of nostalgia at her place, statue and all. It really did feel like something Jim Henson might've done. For me, that's the thing about TFA, even with any of its missteps, taken on the whole, there's just no doubt that I haven't felt like this about Star Wars since I was nine – and it's great!

 

I wonder if it's possible that Luke himself gave the saber to Maz, telling her that someone who was worthy would some day come along and discover it. Maz sensed something special in Rey.

 

So did I. Especially on the 2nd viewing. My only nit pick is that I presume her role was redited as we see her handed a saber to Leia in the trailer. They must have wanted JB to use it at some stage to throw people on the Rey thing and then thats why it was used in the fight at Maz's castle. What happened to Maz incidently? I presume she dissapearred back into the castle after giving JB the lightsaber? Either way, I hope to see her again. Anyone calling her TFA's Jar Jar is way off the mark IMO

 

I came to appreciate her on my second viewing, especially when it came to Finn. Oh and that Jar Jar reference was a Joke.

 

Maz reminded me of Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter. Psychic/Force, Eccentric, and even both had scenes with the use of bug-eye magnifying glasses.

It felt okay to have her there, just left a lot of unanswered questions. I was definitely intrigued by what she was saying, there's probably all sorts of subtle meanings behind her conversations and actions.

The lightsaber being there is very weird, but anything can be explained if you work hard enough.

Professor Trelawney:

 

Your other points have been answered and I'm sure this one has been as well (didn't read the entire thread), but I can't believe people are actually b****ing about this. Did you miss Chewy shooting Kylo with his blaster (A blaster that was blowing up Storm troopers throughout the movie)? Did you miss Finn stabbing him in the shoulder? Did you miss Rey being quite capable with her staff at the beginning of the movie? Did you miss Kylo not being the most powerful dark side user ever (and not being fully trained as Snoke said)? Did you miss Rey running away from Kylo constantly during the duel, UNTIL she focused and let the force in? Have you even watched the movie??

 

I won't lie, Maz was a little odd for me. I enjoyed her character and I'm sure she's connected to the Church of the Force in some way, but perhaps we got too little of her on screen, to the point where she does feel a bit like a fill-in for Yoda. Still, she was quirky enough to stand out. Next movie I think we'll see the Piratey side of her character, the one that builds awesome Messiah-esque statues over her lakeside cantinas.

 

Now that I think about it, Professor Trelawney was the one that spoke the Harry Potter Prophecy...

Could Maz Kanata be the one that came up with the "One who brings balance to the Force" Prophecy? She's old enough.

 

Interesting, although to me it seemed like the prophecy was something whispered about by the Jedi long before the Prequels. Like, thousands of years before when the Great Schisms occurred. But that's not canon anymore, so your theory could certainly be possible.

So, has the Church of the Force been a thing for a long time or was it just an underground movement when the Empire took over?

 

According to the Visual Dictionary, the Church of the Force is an underground movement during the days of the Empire. I could be wrong but it doesn't say anything about its existence prior.

 

Church of the force? Stupid.

 

I'd have to see it again then. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention. I was so atuned to what MSW said about Maz being able to answer questions and doing the whole "hold hands and see into your past" description that had me very excited. I felt that whole part of the film must have been SO drastically changed from what it had been intended.

So the intention was to get Rey and Finn onto a ship to safety that couldn't be tracked? That actually makes more sense storywise actually. I thought it was to interpret the map to see where Luke is. The whole thing about going to Maz because of the lightsaber never really made a whole lot of sense anyway if Han had really retired from all of that. Plus it would make less sense if nobody even knew the importance of it. Finding a bus station of sorts that could help Rey and Finn escape makes a LOT more logical sense.

 

Yup, the map never entered into it.