ST Romance?

AHAHAHAHA!!

Or how about this:

Rey: Please train me.
Luke: Nope.
Rey: Please?
Luke: Still nope.
Rey: *pitched nasal whine* But I neeeeeed to learn to be-
Luke: SOLD!

 

First the movie has to give Rey a reason to want to be trained. When we left off at the end of TFA, she was trying to give the lightsaber back to Luke, ostensibly asking him to return to the Resistance and take up the fight against the FO. Only after her mind is changed can the focus move on to Rey changing Luke's mind.

That's going to take more time than Luke and Yoda since his goal was to become a jedi from the second Obi-Wan handed him that lightsaber. And Yoda didn't even start off with the conviction that the jedi must end.

It could be mid-Act II before the training even begins, if we take into account Rian's tweet that he usually splits his second act into two distinct halves.

 

Hmm. That could work...maybe Forcebacks in the first act, then?

We're going to have: Forcebacks, training, Kylo fight. And I'm betting conflict with Luke beyond his refusal to train her.

Rey is, imo, going to be grappling with trust anf family issues. I mean, think about it: What's the toughest thing Rey coukd be faced with in TLJ?

 

A Forceback at the end of Act 1 could be what motivates Rey to ask Luke to train her.

Other rumored scenes likely to be in Act 1: Fighting the sea monster for permission to stay on Ach-to, Rey's introduction to the froggy nun village, Rey's introduction to the Force tree library, Luke's "jedi must end" conversation, rumored conversation with Obi-Wan's and Yoda's Force ghosts.

I'd expect training to take place in Act 2, then the end of Act 2 (or even the climax of Act 3) could be the fight with Kylo immediately followed by Rey flying the Falcon off of Ach-to while pursued by Tie fighters.



I don't see any way this scene with the Falcon doesn't mark the end of their time on Ach-to: They'd have to flee or be destroyed after having been located by the FO.

All this is to say that if you put together the many rumors about what happens on Ach-to, add in what we've seen in the trailer, then fill in the blanks with the character development that must happen to lead to Luke training Rey, it seems to account for at least 2/3 of Rey's storyline in this film.

So definitely no time for a "centerpiece" romance in TLJ, at least not involving Rey. Which is likely the calculation Rian Johnson made.

 

I'd go with Daisy's answer to romance in VIII: strong romance-esque friendships. Finn and Rose. Finn and Poe. Finn and Rey (intermingle these combinations as you see fit). The smartest narrative choice LF can make is to bond these characters together and let the audience romanticize whichever pair they want.

 

Let's put aside the romance argument...

Rey and Luke relationship is going to be the core theme of movie, no matter where they are.
And they're going to spend almost all the movie together regardless where they are.
To develop their dynamics, you don't need to let them stay on Ahch to almost all the movie...

And you don't need an entire act of the movie, for the rumored scenes.
What is confirmed is that we're going to see... porgs, the nuns, the books, the moster (which I highly doubt is going to fight if his shape is that we've seen) etc...
But what is the context? I'm not sure we're going to have a story line for each and everyone of them.

Porgs may be seen just in the background of a training in scene, just to say..
And/Or above the tree Luke leaves in..
Same for the nuns. The village may very well be just background. End of the story.

Beside that to me the books are part of a vision (the shot in the trailer doesn't look at all as something "real")
but whatever the case is: is an introdution needed? I don't think so. On the contrary:
I believe we will find out during the movie (and perhaps in Ep IX) what's the point with them.
I believe "their role" is going to be something like Rey's vision: a mystery that has to be solved. So, no introdution at all.

And to be 100% honest, I will find all this introdutions, explainations, conversations, before finally taking a lightsaber to train....
absolutelly.... boring. But that's a matter of taste, of course.

However, an act is 45'.
25/30' of actual scenes, of footage Rey+Luke, is an enormous amount of time, in a movie. Enough to have all those things...
if not every single details has to evolve into a proper story line.

Add to that, I agree that Luke and Rey will have to leave the island when Kylo arrives.
It's preatty obvoius.

But If there's going to be another confrontation with Kylo (the climax in the 3rd Act) then (again) the first one (on Ahch to) has to happen much earlier.
Otherwise it will be too much redundant. Not to mention all the others action sequences. Where to put them all?

You cannot have nothing (besides the attack to the Resistance Fleet, probably during the evacuation from D'Qar) and then nothing until the middle of the second act.
If so, then you have to have: Kylo on Ahch to, Battle of Crait, Space Battle and whatever happens on Snoke's Ship one after another without a break.
While in the first half of the movie... almost nothing.

So, I'd say... Kylo on Ahch to, transition 1st/2nd Act, Luke and Rey joying the Resistance, (meanwhile Fin and Rose on Canto Bait), battle of Crait as what splits his second act into two distinct halves.
That could have also been hinted by Rian's comment about Crait... he said he's going to be "central" in the movie.
Or something like this...

 

I think you're not allowing enough time for what's going to happen.

Act 1: Rey and Luke Initial interactions/exploration of Ach-to, The Resistance in peril, Finn going on a mission that leads to Canto, Poe and Leia trying to keep the resistance alive under relentless FO attack.

Act 2: Rey's training begins as well as an exploration of the force and how people relate to it, Finn's mission grows more dangerous and eventually leads him and his new team to Snoke's Command Ship, Resistance is forced to perpare a last hold out 'Crait' for the coming onslaught.

Act 3: Battle collide: Rey and Luke battle Kylo and the Knights on Ach-to before escaping, The Resistance fights the FO military on Crait, Finn assaults the Command ship from the inside.

 

I want to see these boys in my avatar having a post-death romance.

As far as Rey is concerned...I like her with Finn. I know they may not go that route, but they had the best connection.

 

I get the sense from Mark/Daisy interviews that 1. There isn't much screentime devoted to training and 2. There's some serious clashing between Rey and Luke.

There is DEFINITELY some significant Achoo plot thread that's being kept under wraps

 

Or... all those settings and stuff rumored about Ahch to are not going to be so relevant in the plot.
It could be, it could be not.

However, if they're going to be relevant that could be how the movie will proced.

I don't think that will be case, for some reasons.
For example, it's weird that Kylo waits all the movie to reach Ahch to.
If the FO gains the map during the first assault to the Resistance Fleet (act 1) why to wait so long?
Same if it's just - as many speculated - his "bond" with Rey that leads him there.

And still, almost no action sequences untill act 3rd, when almost everything happens: Ahch to confrontation, Crait, assault to the FO Command Ship etc...
But... Poe is supposed to be not only on Crait (Lego leaks) but also with Luke in the finale (Oscar's quotes). And there's the scenes of him saying "is now or never" to BB8 inside the X-Wing... thus it looks like that will happen in the assault to FO Command Ship (if in the 1st Act the x-wing is going to blow up). Therefore, Crait and the assault to the FO command ship, cannot happen at the same time. Otherwise you won't have any of the main character on Crait.
And how can Crait be so relevant, as Colin said, if so?

But... I do not want to convince you. Those are just my ideas/doubts.

That said, about Romance...

Rian said, it didn't feel *right*

because of the characters development. Not because they're too busy on doing other things.​

And he didn't say there's not at all. he said "it's not central".

That is - to me - the point.
I believe, will see something "nice" between 2 characters (so not a "proper" romance, so not something "central", but hinted, subtle)
and we will leave the theater wondering what's going to happen between those 2 characters in ep. IX.

Most likely Finn and Rose.​

But who knows?​

 

How and Why is it most likely Finn and Rose when we haven't even seen Finn and Rose interact with one another in any film... I would think the sublte part would be Finn and Rey since they spend most of the film apart however we also have seen them together in a film and regardless if you Friend zone them or not they have more to what we know as developing romance than finn and rose considering we have not seen finn and rose with one another.

 

The easest thing would have been Finn+Rey.
But Rain said "when we started working with these characters ecc..."
To me this doesn't mean that the problem was that the characters are going to be too busy in TLJ
but that the "romance" is going to be hinted between two characters that don't have already a bond.
This is why it didn't feel right, at this stage. And this why - IMO - it's not going to be Finn-Rey.
It's going to be between two who are going to enstablish a bond in VIII. It will be cute and romance
will be just ... hinted (thus not Central) to be eventually explored in IX.
Add to that what Jhon said "Romance in VIII is not going to go how you think".

 

"So the romance thing is something that's going to be interesting in the next installment. It's not going to go the way you think it's going to go" -John
"The thing is, I read this article the other day, and it was talking about being in love with your friends, and how that is the ultimate thing. So I think romance covers a lot of bases." -Daisy
"There's no one-to-one equivalent of the Han-to-Leia, burning, unrequited love. In our story, that's not a centerpiece." -Rian

Put it all together and it suggests that John was trying to say the same thing Rian and Daisy were trying to say; don't expect an actual "romance thing" in TLJ period. Which is how people "thought it was going to go" based on the example set by ESB.

There's nothing to suggest, either in leaks or in officially released information, that "two characters that don't already have a bond" are going to get one, except Rey/Luke and Finn/Rose, which is a given.

 

Some seem to think Luke and Rey's relationship in TLJ will consist of him grumpily telling her about the Force and then essentially becoming a controlling *bleep*/antagonist when Kylo shows up

 

Did I say that we're going to see 2 characters kiss each other? No.
Did I say we're going to see something more? No.
I said in fact, using other words, no actual romance.

Then I just add my point of view.

If Jhon said " the romance thing is something that's going to be interesting"
I believe there's going to be at least "some kind of" romance, hinted (not an actual romance) so much so it would be interesting.
I believe in fact that something that does not exist, cannot be interesting.

"It's not going to go how you think" to me = is not "Rey+Finn" because the question he was answering was "is there a Rey-Finn romance in VIII?"

I've also said - and I'll say it again - Rian did not deny any "kind" of romance.

He said "In our story [compared to Han and Leia in V] that’s not a centerpiece"

= there is something, but whatever it will be, it won't be a central plot.

Why? Becasue

" when we started working forward with these characters, it just didn’t feel "

Then, it's just my opinion - and no one has to agree if they don't want to - that if Rian wanted to have (let's say) a kiss between Finn and Rey or Poe and Finn
it would have been easy. The "problem" he mentioned ("it just didn't feel") wouldn't exist even if they're going to share only 5 scenes together in 8, because they already have... a bond. Many - in fact - expected that yet in 7.

If you want to get there (a kiss) with them, you don't need to work so much forward.

Therefore I believe it's not going to be Finn and Rey (or Poe and Finn), but two characters that will start to enstablish a bond in IX.

Whoever they are, they won't kiss, they won't declare their love one another.
We will only get the hint that perhaps they like each other.
Thus it will be different that the love/hate kind of thing of Han+Leia, it won't be central but subtle and perhaps explored in IX.
My opinion.

However I believe it fits perfectly with Finn+Rose and I'll bet on that. But I won't say it's given, because I haven't seen the movie - no one has it - and because nothing or no one confirmed it.

I also said, we cannot exclude something else and if I have to be 100% honest, I'll say that Deisy comment fits perfectly with the idea it may be Rey and someone else indeed or too. Maybe in IX we will get 2 romances, not just one

In fact... from a storytelling point of view, you usually insert a third character (Rose in our case) becasue you want to build up the love triangle plot (à la Rory, Dean, Jess dynimic in Gilmore Girls) or because you want to avoid the love triangle plot and therefore you give to one of the 2 potential lovers another interest, so the other one feels free to look for someone else (è la Hart of Dixie).

 

WTF @ Daisy's comment! Platonic romance? Is that a thing...? (Ok, maybe a Luke+Leia reunion...)

I think we'll know by the end of TLJ what the final installment has in store romance-wise. Which should be a huge relief to one group of fans or another...and, frankly, the rest of the fandom, to a degree Because we should have a solid sense of how characters relate to one another by that point, and what may or may not be possible.

In any case, I can't imagine there being more than one *full-blown romance* in 9. At least, not if the theme of love in the ST is primatily intended to be familial love. Dunno what, if anything, has been said officially about that.

 

Perhaps, sometimes for me it's just hard to explain the difference between what I think it's not impossible, what I just "interpret" and what I believe it will happen
But my fault.

 

I'm thinking there might be some romance between Poe and a mailbox in Ep. 9.

 

*bangs head to get rid of that image*

 

Well, if you've seen that "Home Base" student film from Colin Trevorrow, you'd know that Poe + mailbox would be right in CT's wheelhouse...

 

Rey and Finn's relationship was a greatly developed cross-sex friendship that we rarely get to see without it leading to romance or a love triangle. I don't think it'll stay that way, but I'm not totally against romance between them (I'm not sure how I feel about Reylo).
I'd like for Poe to do more, but it seems a little late for a Poe/Rey relationship. Finn and Poe, maybe, but I got the impression that Finn was straight ("you got a cute boyfriend?") .

Unlike Anakin however, his loyalty to Rey doesn't seem to be out of romantic desire, and I think the character relationships were best developed in The Force Awakens compared to the other two trilogies.

 

Daisy was straight-up asked 'Is there romance?' And she responded 'Maybe' in a teasing way and then elaborated that sometimes the most important 'romance' is the one you have with your friends. It was clearly an attempt to move the subject away from romance and not setup expectations.

 

I like that "Finn" is the key to all of these relationships. Works for me

 

it's amazing how so much of all this centers on the definition of "romance" and "family" XD

 

Yeah, a lot of people view romance in different ways. I feel like Daisy was mainly just deflecting but I do think the fact that she immediately says 'friendship is magic!' is pretty telling of the level of romance we'll get in this film.