ST Chewie and Leia...The aftermath???

Yes, unfortunately they actually just messed it up. Well... there goes my hope of there being extended footage that would improve this scene, that they had to cut because the movie was running too long.

 

It would have been fine if Chewie, after rushing off to deliver Finn to the transport for medical assistance, was shown in the next shot to be rushing behind the transport (the beginning of which was shown in the shot previous to the one with Leia). And/or for him to be outside the shot with Leia. And the latter was the mistake, it seems. JJ blocked the shot wrong. Minor mistake, but it's caused major heartburn!

 

Chewie not getting a hug is going to be the new Chewie not getting a medal lol.

 

As I just said in the "Complaints" thread...

I saw Chewbacca as walking past Leia intentionally... leaving her to hug Rey, but not get to talk to him at all. And I thought it was because Chewbacca was mad and he blamed Leia for encouraging Han to confront Kylo.

 

It's nice to hear JJ's explanation. I get what he was going for there, but it was just shot/paced in a wonky way. He should have at least had Leia and Chewie acknowledge/look at one another, or make it more clear that Chewie was preoccupied with getting Finn to the medical bay. That would have probably made the scene less iffy for most people. It's not a big deal for me, I consider it more of a minor nitpick/oversight personally (especially since the film DOES got out of it's way to have the two hug in Leia's very first scene on Takonada). But I get why it bugs other people.

And it's pretty easy to fix. Either don't have them in the same shot (them walking right past each other with no acknowledgment seems to be most people's big complaint). Maybe Chewie is already on his way to the medical bay with Finn BEFORE Leia appears. Or just have them briefly acknowledge each other. Even something like them looking at each other with sad looks on their faces, and nodding. Then Chewie goes off with Finn, and Leia goes to Rey.

Oh and EHT I REALLY hope that that's not where they're going. That'd be such a terrible writing choice imo, do not want.

 

Based on JJ's intent/the script, we should really not have seen Chewie at all after that first shot of him following the medical truck, until we see him again in isolation. I suppose that with that awkward passing shot we can say that he's just lagging a bit behind the truck, and that Leia is aware that he's following Finn to the med bay.

 

Yeah I kind of wonder if either Carrie or Peter Mayhew brought this up to JJ at the time? And if not, why not (especially since Peter is also aware of the whole "Chewie didn't get a medal in ANH" debate)?

 

Well I doubt that Chewie would have stayed mad at her for long anyway... but yeah, I was not necessarily happy with that interpretation. At any rate, I think Chewie being preoccupied with getting Finn to medical help is the main reason, and it's too bad if the shot composition confused that.

 

It's a mistake, but not a huge deal. They spent a good 60 seconds on nice hug earlier in the film and to repeat it might have felt quirky.

It's also something that can be addressed in 8.

 

Agreed. Hope they go this route. Even in the Oscilator (sp?) when Han confronts Ben, they show a quick shot of Chewie looking upset. I'd love for it to be cause his mindset was "No! Han,don't do it!" ... And considering it ended up with his death, Chewie could be harboring some anger towards Leia, thinking if She hadn't asked him, Han wouldn't have confronted their son. Until they talked, Han had pretty much conceded their son was lost to them.

 

At the end of the day, it's a screw up. Where Chewie is concerned, it's reminiscent of the award ceremony at the end of ANH where he wasn't treated equally. He isn't a main character so they simply overlooked it. In terms of Leia and Rey, it's a screw up because whatever JJ was trying to portray between them in that moment didn't come across. People had no idea how they were supposed to interpret that hug. Was Leia slighting Chewie? Do Leia and Rey know each other? Did they talk through intercoms when Rey was on her way there? I know that I had no idea I was supposed to interpret them having sensed each other through the force and this was their moment recognizing each other and mutually grieving. I mean, yes obviously I picked up on the mutual grieving, but not that they were sharing anything before meeting through the force.

 

And never getting medal after they blew up the Death Star. Chewy's got a long memory!

As Seargent Hulka said in Stripes, "Lighten up Francis!"

I think Luke & Leia smooching each other and then making them siblings is alot worse then this.

 

If Leia were slighting Chewie, then their VERY FIRST interaction together wouldn't have been an affectionate hug. I think that the answer is much simpler, the filmmakers just didn't put as much emphasis on it as the more committed fans out there did. They were focused more on the larger story (Rey and getting her to Luke) rather than whether Chewie (who's always been very much a supporting character, albeit a prominent one, in SW overall) got a quick hug.

And oversight, yes. Deliberate disrespect, no. Especially since they went out of their way to make Chewie awesome and funny and just a lot of fun in general in this movie.

And NO, no conflict between Leia and Chewie. Not interested. I don't buy for a second that Chewie would blame her or be mad at her for this, it's feel really contrived. And again, I don't even think that that was the intention here, it was just an oversight.

 

As Abrams said, if he had not framed the shot that way, with Chewie in the background doing his immediate thing, no one would have noticed one way or the other. What is exceptional about this whole thing is that we all began either condemning Abrams for his lack of really understanding the Star Wars characters, or rationalizing why there was no hug with our "explanations". It was a goof on Abram's part by focusing solely on the Leia - Rey dynamic, and he did not notice it until the incoming flak.

I can give him a mulligan for this one, and believe that if anyone else in the cast or staff had caught it, it probably was after the final cut.

 

I respect him for being able to own when he feels that he made a mistake (he did so after the whole "mystery" surrounding Khan in STID). It's more than lots of other "artists" would be willing to do.

 

I hate to say it, but you're right.

Having said that, I think the scene tells us something about Leia's relationship with Rey...which I think is an aunt and niece relationship.

 

Sometimes a man is just pissed off and doesn't want to be comforted by anyone and could coldly walk past anybody who tries, even those closest to him.

Plus Leia has ulterior motives here. She finally gets to meet the girl she has heard so much about. So she probably wasn't even really thinking about Chewie at this point, which is fine, she is a commanding general. And Chewie's a big boy, he can take care of himself for now. She and Chewie have such a shared history together that I'm sure it could have been inferred that at some later point they would have acknowledged each other privately. She also did send him out to go find Luke, so she obviously still has a great deal of trust in him to not only assist in finding Luke but to look after Rey as well.

Personally, I interpreted Leia's immediate comforting of Rey to be a sign of Leia acting on a motherly instinct. Whatever that implies is yet to be seen.

But I never really saw any issue with this until I read that people were making an issue of it.

 

This didn't even cross my mind until other brought it up on these forums.

 

I'm just so glad we didn't get a low of mawkish, sappy, fan servicey scenes of slo-mo hugging and crying. Han was murdered, and we saw the right amount of horror, sadness and grief before getting back to saving the galaxy. That's Star Wars. Terrible things happen, and then...hope.

 

I think that the most important thing with the interview is that he said that Leah is also strong with the Force. . "The idea being that both of them being strong with the Force ...".

 

Chewie could have at leased rawed "Bitch" at her as he ran past lol

 

I only go back to ESB(when Han and Leia were only just starting to get together) and the way Chewie and Leia behaved after Han was frozen.Or how about at Jabba's palace.

But yeah, I too would be more worried about a bloke I just met than consoling the wife of my best friend who just died and mourning with her.

In fact, I would smile and go off on a quest with a girl I just met.

JJ - It's all about the characters.....

 

It's coming to the close of the business day in San Francisco. At Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy is frantically trying to get through to Rian Johnson in Dubrovnik. She has had no luck with his mobile, but has finally secured his hotel room number.
After incessant ringing, Rian finally fumbles around in the dark and answers the phone.
Rian (sleepily): Hello?
Kathleen: Rian! Oh thank God! I have been trying to reach you for several hours.
Rian: Kathleen? What the ... do you what time it is here? It's (fumbles with the clock on the bedstand to get a better view) nearly two AM.
Kathleen: Never mind that. We have a rewrite you need to interject into your script. We need to start getting it filmed so we can drop hints, and let it get seen by the lurkers over there with cameras.
Rian: Am I dreaming or have you all simply gone insane?
Kathleen: You don't understand Rian. Star Wars fans are up in arms about Chewbacca and Leia not hugging in the D'Qar, post-Star-Killer-Base scene. They think we disrespected that relationship and their ire has been growing. Then Abrams comes out and says we goofed. They are screaming for remedy. Disney is concerned for their Burbank headquarters, and we are pretty nervous here in San Francisco ourselves.
Rian: Wait ... just wait. We have a script and a shooting schedule. This makes no sense. Why isn't a simple explanation enough?
Kathleen: Rian, these are Star Wars fans. You simply do not understand. Get on line, download the script, and tomorrow you will have all the characters present by five AM your time, so get shooting. We want six to eight minutes steady of tears, smiling, banter, grinning, hugging, and mutual respect. Okay? Remember, you have some serious gross points, Rian.
Rian: Lord Almighty .... well, okay, I guess ... now can I get some freaking sleep?
Kathleen: Goodbye, Rian.
Rian: Goodbye (hangs up phone)
Rian (mumbling to himself): Should've just made Looper 2 or Brick 2 or something ... these Star Wars fans are beyond sensitive ...

 

Good lord people. I lose a bit more faith in my fellow man when scanning threads like this.

I too was surprised when Leia didn't hug Chewie. It doesn't rise to the level of insanity. I just feel embarrassed for whoever said that this was a worse thing than Jar-Jar. We must learn perspective.

The director has explained it well and I'm satisfied: it was an awkward shooting mistake, and besides, Chewie was carrying Finn and was concerned about him at the moment. They'll have time to commiserate later off screen.

Just a speculation: I thought that, as we hadn't had a chance to really mourn Han Solo's death yet because of the ongoing battle, they may have felt two human faces (and female) would be more expressive of the sense of loss. In any case, for you folks who wonder how they would have known each other (this is their first meeting)...... C'MON! We have two force sensitives here, likely related by blood in some way. In the Star Wars Universe, that's case closed.

 

Someone pointed out to me that, Leia has done this before. She goes out of her way to try and comfort Luke (a boy she just met like ten minutes earlier) over the death of Obi Wan (a guy that she'd never met and only knew by reputation via her father). But, when the General guy on Yavin IV tries to comfort her over Alderaan getting blown up, she brushes it off as essentially "no time for mourning right now, got a DS to blow up." Of course then the OT botched that by never actually showing that, or mentioning Alderaan ever again for that matter.

I think that Han's death is going to hang over this trilogy like a shroud. And I also think that we'll be delving more into the various character's reactions to it. Leia, Luke, Chewie, Kylo, Rey, Finn, and maybe even Lando should we see him again.