Rogue One What's the story with the Bothans?

As we all know... Mon Mothma in ANH briefly mentions the "many" Bothans who died to bring them the schematics/plans of the Deathstar to them....Or as she put it "information"

Will this movie completely contradict her statement? Or will writers cheese out and claim they only "Brought information" and didnt steal it? Or perhaps find some other way to write that statement out?
Or will we see Bothans at some point in this film?

In the promo for the film it talks about pilot spies who steal the plans for the deathstar... but no pictures of any Bothans no mention of them.. what's the scoop on this? anything?

 

That was Return of the Jedi.

 

LOL

(Suckers)

 

Methinks a lot of people are going to be confused by this. Even some of the genuine SW fans I know have asked what about the Bothans. This, on top of the general audience confusion as to when this movie takes place and why they replaced the actress who played the girl in TFA, which I have also been asked by a more casual SW fan......they got some splaining to do.

My hope is that ABC airs a special sometime in late Nov/early Dec about the making of Rogue One. Like a Star Wars Retrospective or something, since we're going back to the OT era, and more specifically when it all started for audiences in ANH, for the first time in nearly half a century. And in this special would contain the usual of what you would expect in something like this but would also include specific narrative points that explain the background of this story. Possibly even going so far as to at one point have Gareth himself saying "I've had many people ask me about the Bothans. Remember that this story takes place..." kind of thing. Air this special in conjunction with a SW marathon on TNT, and I think it would do a lot of good and go a long way in bringing audiences up to speed and making them actually want to attend this movie in droves instead of wondering what the hell this movie is all about and not seeing it out of figuring it's just lost on them. Some of these Marvel movies I didn't go see specifically because I didn't really feel up to speed with any of the previous films or crossover films and felt it would be a lost cause to go see a new one in theaters. I don't doubt the same could happen with Rogue One.

Personally, I had figured that the very first teaser trailer of Rogue One would start as a series of flashbacks to ANH with specific scenes and quotes that contain references to the stolen plans, ending with Vader's "tear this ship apart until you've found those plans" to emphasize the importance and significance. Fade to black, some teaser music starts up, cut to a few select teaser images from Rogue One, maybe a one liner or two. Then the "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" title. Done and done. Audiences brought up to speed. The Bothan question could be dealt with later by just publishing a few articles addressing it.

But, that didn't happen. And I really think they would be doing themselves and the general audience a lot of good by making more of an effort to make people aware of what this story is, rather than just relying on "A Star Wars Story" and the actual SW fans relaying it to everybody.

 

I have a hard time believing people don't know that this is a movie about a bunch of rebels stealing the plans to the original Death Star ... You know ... The Completed one? The one we've seen complete in so many shot across all three trailers? The one in Return of the Jedi was only half built! Put that together with the fact we have original stormtroopers, Darth Vader, no Kylo Ren etc, etc. We're saying even a casual fan can't work out this isn't episode VIII without having it spelt out for them? In that case it's probably a waste of time and money for Disney to make the effort to do so, as when they're finished in all likelihood they still won't get it or, more likely care.

 

I know

There are people who think Jyn is Rey and that the actress has been replaced. So I don't doubt that the appearance of Vader could be another confusing point. Since Kylo was obsessed with Vader, is in possession of his helmet, wants to finish what Vader started, etc., it wouldn't surprise me if somebody thinks the appearance of Vader in the Rogue One trailer might be Kylo trying to imitate him. I would also bet that a decent portion of casual fans, and an even bigger portion of passive fans, could not identify at quick glance a First Order Stormtrooper versus an original Stormtrooper or the completed Death Star versus the original one.

I think the casual to more than casual fan base loses sight of just how many passive SW watchers are out there. As with anything that elicits a passing interest, people who are up for seeing it, and enjoy it when they do, but don't have any lasting thoughts about it one way or the other. This demographic makes up the largest of the movie going general audience. I'd imagine even after seeing the movie that people could walk out of it still having questions. It's those people that I think Disney could make more of an effort to reach. But, that's also coming from a big fan. So I guess you're right, that even if Disney were to make those efforts, that average fan wouldn't even care to pay attention to it and would have the same reaction either way.