ST TFA - strikingly youthful?

At least one of those guys is younger than both Adam and Domnhall. Tagge was played by a guy who was 44. The rightmost dude looks pretty young. So one of everything it looks like

 

Not 24hours ago I was thinking the very same thing....there's a certain depth, self confidence, intensity which comes with age.... Grand Moff Tarkin...Vader himself....even Dooku (maybe classic actors to boot)... that is sadly lacking in a bunch of petulent kids running around with all their "problems and issues" (excuses) and just doesn't get under your skin in the same way. Tarkin was immensely powerful and his presence on screen was just the same...Kylo and Hux bickering like adolescents was woefully not.

 

Do you think that perhaps this was intended? Snoke does not need mature, streetwise people who remember the old days of Empire or can ask intelligent questions?

 

I think that it's completely intentional. There's way too much of it littered throughout the film for it not to be. Plus even the name, "The First Order," and Snoke's title "Supreme Leader" sound rather cult-ish.

 

Did not know that but, hereditary nepotism is a sure fire way to insure the downfall of an organization.

It's not that Hux is incompetent, it's that he has to be super humanly competent. If it took 5 years to build SKB, than Hux was about 25 when construction began. If it took 10 years, he's 20, etc. Was he drawing up the plans when he was a teenager? He doesn't seem to be the evil genius type. And, in a way, that's a missed opportunity.

If there had been a character that had be shown to be the evil genius builder of SKB (the person directing everything, working out the kinks, making sure it works), then Hux being young is much more plausible and it would have given an opportunity to have a discussion of why someone who is not brain washed would support the FO. Did the reparations (which are also never discussed on screen) cause crippling inflation and people are starving? Those sorts of things would be nice to know.

The problem with not using smart henchman is the classic, "Do I have to do everything myself?" Which film will Snoke utter those words?

Tarkin may have thought everything was well in hand as the rebel bombers were destroyed, the first fighter run missed the exhaust port and the rebel's last fighter was in the gun sights of the best pilot in the galaxy. It didn't really go bad until that freighter showed up out of nowhere. Maybe Han was lightspeeding through shields even back then.

 

Stargate Universe, Farscape, Star Trek (2009) all have something in common when it came to advertising. They each used the phrase "This ain't your dad's Star Trek/Scifi/Stargate". Disney didn't have to say that, they just did it through their casting and the way the old folks are already dropping like flies.

This ain't your dad's Star Wars. It's all about the hip youth of today!

 

Who's to say that Hux was in charge when SKB was first started? He's in charge NOW, but that's all that we know for sure.

As for "old folks dropping like flies," if you mean ONE (Han), then yeah sure, they're "dropping like flies."

 

...and Lor San "look how old you've become" Tekka, and the only old guy shown on Kylo Ren's star destroyer got taken out by Finn when he randomly vaped the air traffic control room.

 

Having the cast mostly be young is part of the "hook" to get the new generations into it quickly.

And honestly it did not bother me both from a marketing standpoint but also in terms of a story especially with the First Order. I don't think many of the Empire's higher ups lived through the events of ROTJ and the aftermath. And the ones either saw the handwriting on the wall therefore they joined the New Republic or simply went into retirement for lack of a better word.

Plus and I do not mean to offend the young whipper snappers on here but young people can be easily manipulated. They are easier to train and mold. Therefore someone like Snoke would want his order to be filled with young people so they follow orders no matter what. That is what made Finn's defection so shocking to the FO. Finn had been trained since birth and knew other life outside of the order.

 

Talk about 'Strikingly Youthful'!!!

Amygdala was, what, 16? when she was Queen? A Senator at age 26 when she fell in love with that whiny brat (what did she see in him?), who would be then 20?

Leia was 19 when we met her...

It seems that Rey is the same age, and it's Finn who is a few years older.

 

Yeah but both Padme and Leia were played up as being "wise beyond their years." Like they'd both been trained almost since birth to be leaders and they had a lot of experience in that regard, and with interacting with people in general. So they had a air of maturity that exceeded their physical age.

By contrast, in terms of social interactions/knowledge of the wider universe/emotional attachments, Rey, Finn, AND even Kylo seem much "younger" and more awkward.

 

Ha! While youth must be served, it would be wise to remember age and treachery, my friend. Age and treachery.

 

There is some truth to that. Namely the young can be very fickle into what they are into and can change sea direction at the snap of the button. Three years ago, teenage apocalyptic dystopia was the it thing and didn't seem to be slowly down any time soon. Fast forward to today and it appears like that gravity train as come to a crashing halt. Not even THG can draw much of a buzz.

Lucasfilm better keep in mind that when it looks for diversity, it also keep that in mind a bit with age as well. Cannot have everyone be young. Again young people sway too much in order what is "hip" (and God forbid they are caught liking something not hip, their lives end!) while older audiences will eventually get tired of watching movies that literally just focus on kids barely able to shave.