ST Lupita Nyong'o (Maz Kanata) in the ST

No.

Han not listening to Finn, when he told him this place could hold FO sympathizers, is the reason.

Han vouched for Maz, but could he honestly vouch for Maz's customers. Nope.

And look what happened.

 

I hope Maz was more than a mechanism to produce Anakin's lightsaber. Based on when she went in to do her part I'm a bit worried. I agree, an old wise force user who isn't a jedi is interesting and there could be a lot there to explore.

 

I'm confused a bit...

This thread is way back on page 7 -- and a Google search of Maz Kanata and The Last Jedi essentially reveals nothing

Am I correct in thinking that as of the typing of my post -- at least in TLJ -- Maz is not gonna see much, if any, screen time?

 

Going by what Lupita has said interviews, you'd be correct. She'll have less screen time than TFA.

And we don't know how she'll tie into the plot yet. Even MSW doesnt know.

 

She'll give some exposition on how she came about the lightsaber, some wisdom may accompany that, and be on her way. That's my bet.

 

I was disappointed with how Maz was used in TFA. What was the point of her character again? Turns out Han could have been the one who had Luke's ESB lightsaber (perhaps Luke gave it to him before leaving or through the smuggling world or through Lando Han acquired it in his years searching for Luke). Han could have had the conversation with Rey about leaving her past behind and the importance of her finding Luke since she believed in the Force and now Han is reformed and is a believer, too. Han could have just taken Rey and Finn to some "Smuggler's Cove" type place to get her aboard a different ship to fly to Leia. Why does Han need a little orange alien to do his job for him? Hasn't he been a smuggler/trader and ace pilot for a long time?

Maz's existence and use would have been justified if it turned out she was a former pupil of Luke's (the only survivor from Kylo's attack) and is now in hiding and not showing her Force abilities or something. In that case, Han's bringing Rey to Maz should only be about the Force connection and finding Luke, not muddled in with this business of getting on a clean ship before going to the Resistance. That would have also made Han even more important as the lynchpin between Luke, Maz and Rey. Connecting these three force users together in a way no one else in the galaxy could.

I'd be very curious as to how Johnson will incorporate Maz into TLJ if I didn't think she was going to be such a minor character, but I'm afraid she really is. Once they cut out her force powers from the TFA battle sequence and cut out her traveling to the Resistance Base and her scene with Leia and the lightsaber, I think that sealed her fate as a much less important character than perhaps Abrams originally envisioned her on paper.

 

I hope Maz gets 10 seconds screen time total.

 

You may not be far off. We could be looking at a Jar Jar-level screen time reduction for Maz in TLJ.

I give her one scene, then maybe a glimpse in some kind of ending montage/celebration/etc.

 

Honestly it's because they're so hell bent on the force being exclusive to Rey, Luke and Kylo that they've honestly wasted her potential. Like you said , if Maz had been revealed to be Luke's first apprentice who survived the massacre and went on to be a Pirate who takes an interest in a latent force sensitive Finn, who's oblivious to it so she takes him under her wing , I'd argue it'd be more interesting than the giant info dump that she became. Her being tied to Kylo and Luke's past would've given her a more refined perspective.

 

I think Maz's potential was wasted when they altered the storyline in the reshoots. Originally she seemed more involved, handing the saber to Leia and all.

 

Yes! And it could have been so interesting to see a (very) old Jedi who has given it all up to be more in Han's underworld which is where he encounters her, and to see that Han (ironically) convinces her that Luke can be found and the FO defeated, if only she helps Rey and gets "back in the fight." Han comes to her door with Luke's old and lost lightsaber as well as a super force-sensitive girl? That's a huge sign for Maz it's time to return to the light. There's also the whole angle of Han wanting to seek out a Force user, in Luke's absence, who can give him insight and advice about his son Ben, which would have been great, and boosted Maz's importance.

 

A bunch of good ideas -- that don't seem will ever see the light of day again unfortunately.

I guess you never know -- she may just be a character for books and comics from here on out. If this is the route they are going - I didn't need her to be 1000+ years old either. Seems like a plot point with no necessity. I could go on nit picking away at why I am annoyed at all this -- but don't see the point.

It is what it is - move along, move along.

 

Either Maz is a relic from a previous direction TFA went, or she's a victim of some liberal editing (the second act, in particular, appeared to be reduced to broad strokes), or the performance was deemed underwhelming. Whatever the reason, Maz basically served her purpose and, for TLJ, there's too much cast for the character to make any kind of dent. Which is just as well. She was oversold in pretty much every way the first time around (Han's statement before entering the castle/pub made me expect a real freak show, not the tepid take on the creature cantina), and any additional expectations for her amount to fan re-writing. Which is fine, but could apply to any number of characters.

 

I thought the Cantina there was weak, too. When you walk into Saw's den in Rogue One you know that they are extremists who often resort to terrorism and there are nasty creatures like Bor Gullet.

Maz shouting Han's name was beyond dumb. Why did they even go there if the Republic world was literally right there? They saw it blow up later.

 

How so?

 

IIRC, the novelization suggested there was some astrophysical ju-ju involved, so notwithstanding being able to witness the destruction, I don't think Maz's world was particularly near the Hosnian system.

Back to Maz, I figured calling out Han's name was either (1) a reference to her being able to sense presences through the Force, or more likely, (2) an attempt at one of those stop-the-record bits where all action and music halts with a loud announcement.

 

Agreed on all of that -- the Cantina seemed tame by all accounts -- so Han's warning rang a bit hollow

Maz yelling like that was the 1 reason everyone on both sides knew he was even there -- some discreet friend she turned out to be

The room with the sabre was just a random room as far as I could tell -- would have thought it might be a little better protected

Blowing up a place over 1000 years old and the FO doesn't get a heck of a lot of blowback from the patrons. You'd think Maz has some powerful friends to look after her. Would have been cool to show the "parking lot" but that was not to be found. Where were they gonna get a "clean ship"?

It's obvious Maz had her role massively cut down. Why is the real question -- and we only have a few clues. And it seems like she might be gone for good.

 

It announced loudly to any spies that they were there. Even Finn later on knew someone definitely spotted them already.

 

Maz really served no purpose in the final cut-story of TFA that could not have been done fulfilled better with a number of different characters. Hell they could've had Dex character instead of Maz and that would've been more interesting (to me at least), to see him now owning a cantina in some back-water planet away from Coruscant. (Dexter Jettster)

Yes they could've made Maz more important or interesting but it's really a distraction. For all the warnings that Han gave before we meet Maz, she turns out to be nothing. When the FO attacks she's completely useless to defend her livelihood or her life. She just runs and hides under a rock and waits for the Resistance to save them.

Why did Han even bothered warning them about Maz. What was she going to do to them that require a warning?, kiss them to death, bore them to death?

 

In one of the deleted scenes of TFA she uses the force to cave in a piece of the building and create a barrier between Han and Finn and the troopers.

 

Hence why I qualify my statement "in the final cut-story of TFA". The deleted scene does not exist. It's like an early draft of ideas that were in the script but later abandoned.

 

While I agree that Maz could have been handled much better there were many purposes to the Maz visit. The first order was informed about BB-8. C3P0 was able to track BB-8 through the droids that were there. Rey finds the lightsaber. Finn revels who he really is. Rey gets captured. Han gets to see Ben. None of that would have happened with out a stop by Maz's.
In the TLJ I would expect to see Maz during the resistance evacuation and that's about it. I doubt that we get to hear the story of how she ended up with the lightsaber.

 

Yeah I get what you mean, I even remember in early concepts of TFA, she finds Finn after he's crashed on Jakku and then helps "revive" him so to speak, but then she just became some lady Han knows, also the shot of her giving Lukes saber to Leia, it seems they had a lot of ideas and had no real idea of where to go from there, i would hope Rain could do something more but all I see going forward is her telling the story of how she got the saber, and thats it.

 

Sorry but this is a meaningless argument...you seem to be saying that a new character could've been a different character and still served the same purpose in the story...well obviously, any new character could have performed the same role in the story, because they would be a new character with no history and expectations attached to them. It doesn't make Maz a bad character. And I really don't think we need to see Dexter Jettster again, he was bad enough the first time around.

Also, what do you mean 'all the warnings that Han gave them...'? The only warning he gives them is not to stare at the people / creatures inside. He never makes Maz out to be some dangerous gangster or warrior. And what exactly was she supposed to do when the FO attacked? Take on mutiple stormtroopers on her own? And when does she 'run and hide under a rock'? She emerges from the rubble at the same time that Han, Chewie and Finn do, then we don't see her again. This is just another example of people criticising TFA for things that were not actually in the film.

Overall I liked Maz as a character. She's only a supporting character, she plays her part in the story then the story moves on. She's a bit of Obi-Wan, a bit of Yoda, without obviously being as important in the overall saga as either of them - but she's not meant to be. People criticise TFA for being a rehash, but then also expect every new character to fall neatly in line with an equivalent in the OT. So Maz is there to offer a bit of wisdom and plant the seeds for Rey's later awakening. She's not meant to be as powerful or important as Yoda.

Also regarding the inhabitants of her bar, they actually looked better, and the whole location was better realised, than the original cantina (it's well known that Lucas wanted the aliens to be better but they didn't have the budget / time to do it properly, and it had to be dimly lit to hide how naff some of the costumes were) - but obviously the original version is more iconic because it was done first. Plus it does have a bit more 'seediness' about it - whereas Maz's bar came off like a homage to the original, because it was.

Anyway I thought this thread was meant to be about the character's role in TLJ, not just another excuse to complain about things you didn't like in TFA.