ST Your theories about the main plot of Episode 8.

I've done something similar in the spoiler free forum for TFA and actually guessed a decent portion of the story, going to do the same thing for EP8. Well here we go, here are my predictions:

- Movie will be called: "The Darkness Within".

- Every single part of Star Wars saga took place quite a long time ago after the previous episode - it varied from movie to movie and sometimes the time gap was merely a year and sometimes it was a decade or more. Episode 8 shall be no exception and will occur few months after EP7 and will begin with Han's funeral. During the said funeral we will meet Lando who might also shed some light on how he got a hold of Luke's (or should I say Anakin's) lightsaber.

- Rey's technique and overall power will improve greatly after training with Luke. Skywalker will tell Rey what caused Ben Solo now known as Kylo Ren to fall to the Dark Side. He is going to warn her about the lure of the Dark Side, just like Yoda warned him. Also at some point it will be revealed that Rey's memories were erased before she was left on Jakku thus explaining how she learned to use the Force with such ease.

- Even though everything seems to be pointing to the fact that Rey is Luke's daughter and definitely a Skywalker (the vision upon touching Anakin's hilt) I think this might not be the case. It was probably obvious to the writers when working on the script that audience will come to those conclusions when watching the film. I think this might be their intention to increase the shock factor when we will learn the actual truth. If she is not Luke's daughter I am not quite sure who she could actually be, perhaps another child of Han and Leia though that seems unlikely. Daugther of Snoke? Maybe I am simply overthinking things.

- We will probably learn more about Snoke and his origins. A lot of people seem to think that he is in fact Darth Plagueis, the master of Darth Sidious. I was pretty certain that would not be the case before seeing the movie but now I think it might be a possibility ( a lot of things seem to be pointing to that, to name one: his physical appearance). What we know so far is that he was alive during the Clone Wars and saw both the rise and fall of the Empire. He is also force sensitive which leaves very few options. If he is not Plagueis, he could be one of Palpatine's advisers, an inquisitor or a dark side practitioner who had nothing to do with the Rule of Two and simply observed galaxy's fate unfold, biding his time. I can't stress this enough but I really don't want him to be a Sith Lord or a Sith of any kind. Vader and Palpatine were the only true Sith Lords alive and with both of them gone Anakin full field the prophecy of the Chosen One by bringing balance to the force... in a way. Obviously there can't be balance if new movies are to be made. Anyhow, if an actual Sith would be alive, that would render the entire saga pointless.

- Galaxy is in chaos after annihilation of the Republic. With the fleet and military might of the New Republic gone, First Order began an aggressive expansion from the Outer Rim territories/Unknown Regions into the Core Worlds. History repeats itself and once again, the Empire (or rather its remnants) have the upper hand and Resistance struggles to fight back resorting to guerrilla style of warfare.

- I think it is pretty much a given that Luke will play a significant role in Episode 8. Also, we are bound to see him swing a lightsaber. How will that happen exactly? I think that Kylo, after being heavily injured on the ice 'Starkiller' base planet will gather the remaining Knights of Ren in order to hunt down Luke Skywalker (and Rey) once and for all. They will eventually catch up to them but will be no match for an old jedi master.

A lot more stuff can be deduced from seeing trailers so I guess to say more we will have to wait for those.

Anyway, lets get some ideas rolling, I am sure we have quite a few creative minds here on the forums. When the movie comes out we can look back at this thread and see if any of us were right.

 

I wonder if the Resistance base will be moved away from D'Qar (just as the Alliance base was moved away from Yavin) now that the First Order knows its location. I hope so, as it would be great to see a new location.

 

Possibly, depends if the First Order is stronger than the Resistance after destruction of the Starkiller base. I assume they evacuated from the planet but probably not everyone was so fortunate.

 

Oedipus Ren Then he kills both Luke and Leia. There'll be female sith lords in dominatrix like outfits. Weird slo-mo silent scenes with dark music over the top of Snoke like that little kid in Looper tearing bodies apart, really weird shot compositions (that's Rian's thing), dialogue that's very film noir (that's his thing too). Etc.

But Luke and Leia will die!

I'll attempt a synopsis later.....

 

- The time between RotJ and TFA mimicked the real world time between the movies, so I could see that pattern continuing for the next two movies (1.5 years). If Han were to have a funeral, I think it would have happened in TFA. To have it in Episode 8 would feel like retreading ground, IMO. You want to drive the narrative forward, and having a funeral scene would stop the story dead in its tracks. I agree that Lando (and his daughter played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw?) will make an appearance, and maybe he can react to the news of Han's death, which would give us more closure on that plot thread.

- Luke training Rey is still technically a foregone conclusion. Rey's mission was to find Luke so he could come back and help Leia and the Resistance, not to begin her Jedi training. For her to start training under him, we have to make the assumption that this is something they both want, and screw the Resistance. Obviously TFA sort of points in the direction of her becoming his student, but I think there's still a lot of story in the way. Will Luke need to be persuaded to train Rey? It seems like we don't have enough information yet (especially on Luke) to make that leap, although I'm pretty sure it will happen at some point.

- I agree that Rey is NOT Luke's daughter, and probably isn't related to the Skywalkers whatsoever, but she could become his adopted daughter by the end of the whole thing.

- I'm sure we'll learn more about Snoke, although I'm not sure how big of a role the actual character will have. They might want Episode 8 to be Kylo Ren's movie, and Episode 9 to be Snoke's. My prediction is he's not Darth Plagueis, nor is he a Sith. In fact, I think Snoke may not even be a real character, but a masquerade for someone (or something) else. Regardless, he has to have some connection with Rey, otherwise there's no personal reason for Rey to be fighting this struggle. Kylo Ren killed her good friend, Han Solo, but Snoke is just some random ghoul. He probably has something to do with her parents; either killed them or they're somehow villains working for him, or something along those lines.

- Like TFA, Episode 8 probably won't focus very much on the "macro" issues involving the Republic or the galactic civilization as a whole. More likely, it will be an intimate story involving the leads, set against the backdrop of the Resistance locked in a hopeless struggle. The only element that may come across is that they're getting hammered by the First Order, but that's it.

- Luke should have a big role. TFA established that Rey wants parents/family and Maz hints that Luke could provide that for her. The heart of the story of the ST may be the father/daughter relationship between Luke and Rey. If that's the case, then they should develop a strong bond and friendship in Episode 8. For some reason I doubt we'll see Luke in a lightsaber duel in Episode 8 (probably saving it for the grand reveal in the climax of Episode 9), but I'm sure we'll see him use the Force, and get a sense of how powerful he is now.

 

I think Snoke created Anakin. How else did Snoke convince Ben Solo to turn if Ben already knew that Vader redeemed himself? Snoke probably showed Ben that he was the father of Darth Vader and that the Skywalkers are really just a creation of Snoke's. Snoke was around during that time so this isn't too far from ridiculous. This is why Ben wants to finish what Vader was doing by hunting and killing the last jedi. Snoke knows how powerful Luke is because he created his father. This is why he takes Ben because he knows he needs someone with Skywalker blood to be able to take on another skywalker. I think this all could be revealed in episode 8. There are already rumors (rumors, I know) that Hayden is being trained for episode 8. Maybe Anakin will have to come back in one way or another to convince Kylo of how wrong he is. Rey will probably be revealed as Luke's child which would make sense because of her amazing force abilities. Snoke will find a way to get to his prime form again and become dangerous. Luke then fights snoke towards the end and gets beat up badly, possibly dying to the creator of the Skywalkers at full power. Rey will become the only hope of stopping Snoke. Maybe Kylo will return to the light and it will be up to the two of them.

 

My predictions:

1. Rey and Finn will take separate paths. At the end of the TFA, Rey goes to Luke, and he will presumably train her in the ways of the Force. Finn, meanwhile, is left to recover at the Resistance Base. In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke and Han and Leia have essentially separate stories after the first sequence on Hoth, and the groundwork laid in TFA looks set to have Rey and Finn follow similarly divergent paths.

2. Finn and Poe will team up and go on a mission for the Resistance (potentially a mission to help rebuild its shattered resources and support base). Benicio del Toro and Gugu Mbatha-Raw have been cast in VIII, and I would bet money on both actors playing roles that will feature in Finn and Poe’s story thread. I also suspect that Gugu will be playing Finn’s love interest (the actresses trying out for the part had to have chemistry tests with John Boyega, which indicates as much). I would also expect Captain Phasma to have another encounter with Finn - she’ll want revenge for her deeply undignified treatment in TFA.

3. Kylo and Rey will both be shown training in the Force, and will grow massively in power under their respective teachers. We will learn more about both their histories through their training.

4. Rey will learn something about her past (almost certainly to do with her parentage/the circumstances of her being left on Jakku) that will distress and upset her deeply, causing her to abandon Luke and her training. She will leave and go in search of further answers, and this search will eventually take her to Kylo.

5. The film will end with another encounter between Rey and Kylo, but this time Kylo will tell Rey something about their shared history that will change her view of him and cause her to step over into the dark side. As Kylo was emotionally compromised and vulnerable to the temptations of the light side at the end of TFA, Rey will be emotionally compromised and vulnerable to the temptations of the dark side at the end of VIII. This would create a massive cliffhanger and huge anticipation for IX, and it would challenge all of the apparent certainties established in VII.

I’m reluctant to get into this any further, since to get any more detailed than this would cross the line into fanfiction. But I nonetheless felt it worth laying out the broad strokes I think we might see in the sequel. Based on the history of the saga (it’s like poetry - it rhymes!), VIII is likely to get a whole lot darker than VII. While Rey is pure light and goodness in VII - always triumphant and always heroic - I’m certain we will see her struggle more in the sequel. I think she’s going to be left confused and emotionally adrift by the revelations to come about her background, and I think ending with her on the dark side would be a hell of a way to shock people and guarantee that the audience returns for the concluding episode.

 

My general ideas:
1.It will take place a few months or years after VII. At least a month, at most 2 years. Probably a 6-18 months. We will start off with a big battle relatively soon like Hoth. Could be a space battle, NR/resistance invasion or FO invasion. They will feign another Hoth though, everyone will be expecting at loss for the heroes like ESB so we will see a last minute save by a main character Rey/Poe/Finn to save the resistance.

2. As a general rule we actually will see our characters tend to rather well for most of the movie when everyone expect everything to go to **** similar to ESB, at least at first.

3.We will see Rey and Ren's training throughout the first 2/3 of the movie. This will also use this time to introduce some elements to the mythos of the force. Also we will see some hints about who Snoke actually his, as well as the backstories of Ren and Rey.

4. Poe and Finn will probably go off on their own fun and exciting bromatic adventure that will connect with Rey's near the end. Probably will deal with Phasama and Hux. Hopefully we will meet Lando along the way.

5. Rey will at first appear to be even more of a prodigy than she did in VII. She also will be building a strong father/daughter relation with Luke. Everything will be going right for her. She has found a father figure(who may or may not be her real father ), she has found a sense of belonging within the resistance, she turns out to be excellent at this force thing(maybe with a few hints she dabbles a bit too close to the darkside but nothing in to bad so far), people respect her and even the great Jedi master Luke Skywalker is impressed.

6.So despite all the good I was just talking about its just to build everyone up so they can fall harder in the last act. There should be some foreshadowing here and there though, enough to notice on a second viewing but subtle enough so it will shock people on their first viewing who hopefully are caught up with the seemingly positive story.

7. All plot points will lead up to a single location like Bespin. I also expect this too be a more large scale event that also will give the resistance/NR a major loses

8. We will leave off on a devastating note like in Empire. I could see Luke dying, I doubt we will see Finn or Poe dying. I also like the idea of Rey turning to the dark side when everyone sees her as the perfect beacon of light. Especially if everything happens for episode 8 like I think it does, it would cause everything to hit harder. I'm not sure how they would pull if off though, they could do a reveal of Rey's background but that would either have to mean she is Luke's daughter,but that will be too expected and I don't think that will be enough for a turn, she probably will be upset for a bit but she won't betray everyone and will be too close with Luke and the others after bonding with them for 2 movies. Or she could be related to the villains somehow but this would be a repeat of ESB and not very interesting because we've seen it with Luke and I don't think it would be tempting for Rey, after all they did dump her on Jakku.

My idea is that Luke saves Kylo from Snoke who is enraged after he couldn't defeat Rey. Luke dies and Kylo barely gets away and has some serious time to rethink what he is doing in his life. Rey is totally broken by this, and wants nothing but revenge on Snoke and Kylo for killing who she considers her father(and might actually be her father) Then we get a surprise reveal of a another dark side user who offers Rey the chance to be able to take revenge on Kylo and Snoke.(on a side note it would be great if this was Plageus and anything with Snoke was a false flag)

9. By the end of it Poe/Finn will probably be beaten, but not out of it. One might be captured. Kylo will have left Snoke and in a state of turmoil probably moving towards the light. The Resistance will be defeated and on the run. Luke could very likely be dead, and Rey will either be on the darkside or emotional devastated probably more so than Luke was in ESB.

 

Star Wars Episode VIII Heir to the Republic

The Resistance fleet should unite with what's left of the New Republic fleet, run by Benicio Del Toro's Thrawn who is secretly uniting with Hux to stage a coup within the First Order. The New Republic/Resistance fly to a neutral zone planet run by Lando. He wishes to help Leia in any way to avenge Han. Meanwhile the city secretly betrays him and the Resistance to Thrawn who is actually awaiting Hux and his fleet of Star Destroyers.

The First Order is going through a bit of a civil war as half are following Hux to Thrawn and half are staying loyal to Snoke (who is busy training Kylo Ren).

Finn meets and falls for a girl in the city who ques him in on the coup but they're caught by Phasma who kills the girl and brings Finn home.

There's a fierce battle above the city and into space, Lando and Poe lead a defense of the city but are overwhelmed by the newly united fleets. Lando retreats with a few ships. Poe's squad is all wiped out while he manages to barely escape in his badly damaged x wing and BB-8. He floats through space aimlessly, running out of life support.

The newly united New Republic and First Order fleets under Thrawn, claim the new heart of the galaxy. Thrawn has both Leia and Hux executed, symbolizing a new era.

Phasma brings Finn back to the real First Order. Snoke is pleased. She is promoted to General and is given an officer's uniform.

That's all I got so far. But I think Rey in the Falcon should rescue Poe from his dead X wing and they go looking for Finn

 

The relationship between Rey and Finn will guide this trilogy.

Thus, it will come down to this....

-Rey/Finn will fall in love
-Rey will be in a situation where she could use Finn's help
-Finn will have to make a choice between helping her and helping some other cause
-He will choose the other cause
-Rey's worst abandonment fears will be realized again; Finn will arrive too late or whatever and she will go to the dark side --- she will give in to those feelings of despair and loneliness and anger.

All other specifics/details irrelevant...the above is the main event.

Banking on it now.

 

Title: The Power of the Dark Side

- Film opens with Snoke and Kylo. Snoke completes Kylo's training by killing him, then resurrecting him. Tasks him to hunt down Luke Skywalker and destroy him
- Luke and Rey train at the first Jedi temple. Rey asks Luke "I'm ready to know, tell me about my family" and we get an "I am your Father" line from Luke, followed by the explanation that Rey's mother left the Jedi academy when Luke agreed to train Ben, but that Luke didn't know she was pregnant. When Ben turned and destroyed the academy, his wife returned to confront Ben, but Ben killed her. Rey must have been left on Jakku when her mother went to confront Ben.
- Poe and Finn have an encounter with Kylo, but escape and go to warn Luke and Rey that he is looking for them
- Poe, Finn, Luke and Rey are chased by Kylo and his sinister agents across the galaxy
- Eventually, Luke and Rey decided to confront Kylo. Luke is killed by Kylo, Rey barely escapes with her life.
- Rey, Finn and Poe return to the Resistance, which is also now in hiding after being harried by The First Order, which now clearly has the upper hand. Leia is given the news about her brother.

 

I agree that Rey will go to the Dark Side, but I think it will happen in Ep 9.

 

Jumping off your theory that the galaxy is in chaos, I like it if we saw that there are people in the galaxy who are angry that the Resistance/Republic didn't do enough to stop the First Order from becoming a powerful threat. These people would fall into a third group, neither supportive of the Republic nor the First Order. Maybe their a fringe splinter group from the Resistance.

 

Maybe Episode 8 begins with the Resistance packing up to relocate to their new HQ but they're interrupted when the First Order launches an attack, thus scattering/weakening the Resistance.

 

It'll be interesting if Rey turns out not to be related to Luke at all, though ironically it would still make her story mirror Luke's a bit, i.e. just as Luke crossed paths with Obi-Wan, Rey has crossed paths with Luke. If this similarity continues I wonder if that means we'll discover that Rey's father is/was a bad guy.

 

I kinda want the movie to open with a big space clash with NR/Resistance forces lead by Leia against First Order Star Destroyers--I want to see the big Finalizer in action. I imagine, with both the NR and FO crippled, both are now in a state of open war and desperate for an advantage. I also kinda hope that we bring back Lando, perhaps now having assumed leadership of the Republic polity.

I hope kinda that Luke, immersing himself in the Force 'hub' of the ancient temple, has been seeking out Force-users like Rey, and thus 'seeding' the galaxy with potential new Jedi. Helping her hone her skills, he, Rey, and maybe others will go forth to seek out Kylo and Snoke, while perhaps Finn, now elevated to a higher position in the Resistance, must help temper and balance Leia and Lando's desire for blood against the FO.

 

Episode 8
The First Order Strikes Back
Kylo is obsessed with finding Rey to train her to help him kill Snoke. He dispatches thousands of probe droids through the galaxy to hunt the resistance, who have moved their base to a secret planet. After finding the base there is a big battle at the begining. Finn and Carrie Fisher's daughter escape in the Falcon with C3P0.

Rey spends most of her time on Jedi Island, training with Luke. She learns how to levitate R2.

Kylo hires bounty hunters to find the Falcon, convinced Rey is on board.

Kylo captures Finn, Carrie Fisher's daughter, Chewie and C3P0 on Kamino City. C3P0 is shot by stormtroopers and Kylo tortures the others.

Rey feels their pain and rushes to rescue them, even though Luke and Anakin's ghost beg her not to go without completing her training.

Kylo tests a suspended animation chamber on Finn to make sure it's safe to use on Rey.

Rey shows up, fights Kylo. He cuts off her hand and captures the Skywalker saber. She miraculously escapes.

I got nothing else.

 

The Millennium Falcon gets blown up and people will morn it's destruction like the loss of a character.

Or maybe one of the characters goes on a suicide run in the Falcon and both the Falcon and the character are wiped out.

In other words rest in peace Chewie.

 

I think Ep 9 will be about trying to bring her back and her redemption.

It'd be crazy if she killed Finn but then afterwards realized she were pregnant or something, and the little baby's presence is what redeems her.
Then she flees the FO and it's almost full circle to PT where you have this seemingly normal woman who raises this strangely gifted child on a deserted planet.

 

Here's what I think will happen:

• New Republic Rises - After the destruction of the Hosnian System, the New Republic will rise up and retaliate. Against both the First Order in the name of vengeance and the Resistance to reassert its dominance, senators and bands of the garrison will attack both sides in a Three-Way War. Benicio Del Toro will play the new Supreme Chancellor who is in favor of a militaristic rule.
• Rey's Training and Luke's Light - Rey will continue her training. She will build her own lightsaber. Luke will reveal that he is her father. Rey also learns that her mother (a Kenobi) is still alive, being the one who left her on Jakku while Luke sought Ren in vengeance. The couple lost each other afterwards, Luke going to the First Jedi Temple and the mother being lost. Father and daughter will now search for her together.
• Ren's Training and Snoke's Deception - Kylo undergoes more training. Snoke keeps lying to Kylo that killing Han was a good thing, and now killing Luke will be the final step in complete darkness. Kylo becomes more unstable. Visions of Vader (really Anakin's Ghost takin on a different form) will appear to him. Snoke also re assembles the Knights of Ren, saying that now that Luke has stepped out of the shadows, they must reveal themselves as well.
• An Order Shattered - Unlike the Empire, the First Order is in absolute disarray after the destruction of their big ol' planet destroyer. Hux and Kylo desperately try to control it. Snoke orders the Knights of Ren to all take positions in the Order. All troops (and Hux, begrudgingly) swear loyalty to the Knights of Ren.
• The New Jedi and the Knights of Ren - A new Jedi character will reveal herself and come to Luke and Rey to be trained. The trio will also find out about the Knights of Ren. While having reservations, Luke agrees to start training a new Jedi Order once again. This will lead to a Jedi Knights vs Knights of Ren duel in Episode IX which will be the big finale.
• Poe and Finn Fall In Love - An intricate love sequence where Chewie and BB-8 sing about how they are loosing their friends. Elton John performs "Can You Feel The Love Tonight." (obviously a joke...but Disney make Foe happen!!)

Title: Star Wars Episode VIII : The Resurging Powers

 

The one plot point I'm almost convinced of at this point is that somehow Rey is going to turn. The novelization explicitly called out that her success against Kylo was primarily due to the dark side although she did come to her senses before the ground splitting.

The turn also has to be believable. Anakins justification for turning was horrible IMO in the prequels. The turn will likely play into her abandonment and will be either due to Luke concealing something from her, the truth about her mother being revealed, Finn being used as a trap, or perhaps Snoke possessing her a la clone Emperor had planned to do with Anakin Solo in the Dark Empire EU story.

Story wise they have built her up way too much already for her to just continue along as this perfect Jedi. Everything has come easy for her but now we need to see her taken down a few notches and perhaps even succumb. It's how you keep film characters interesting.

IMO bringing on Johnson who is a master at "dark" themes is a huge signal of this.

 

I think she will definitely turn at some point. I think she experiences a lot of pain and resentment due to being abandoned. I think her being left alone for so long will come back into play. It has to. She isn't a perfect character, she will break at some point. Ultimately, she won't fully turn, but I think she will tamper with the dark side more than Luke did. She has more of reason to turn, imo. She was abandoned. There are probably reasons for her abandonment, but she was still left alone to survive. The look on her face when she was kicking Kylo's butt was pretty telling. She looked like she was ready to kill him. The only reason she stopped was because of the split in the earth. She seemed to snap out of it.

Honestly, out of all the Skywalkers, she has an actual reason to give into the dark side. Anakin was raised by a mother that cared and loved for him. They were poor, but she still did everything she could for him. Luke and Leia were taken from their real parents, but were cared for and loved. Kylo was clearly loved and cared for. I'm not sure why he turned. Rey hasn't experienced any kind of love. She's been alone for a long time.

 

Yes, which is why she would have made the perfect Jedi whenever activated or sought out. She wouldn't have had any attachments.

But now you have.....FN-2187.

That's an attachment.

What pushes her to grab the saber and kick Ren's ass is the desire to protect Finn. His screams are the screams that wake her up. When she decimates Ren, she runs over to Finn first and cries over his body.