Ep7 Reviews (Spoilers)

[Darth Tanner]

That second bit of the quote never made it into the film but I take your point... Anakin was a bit of a mary sue, but his pod racing never seemed that incredible to me that a human could not have done it.

It seemed from the movie that pretty much everybody can walk around and do what they want on Starkiller base - Rey is not the only one doing shenanigans down there.

Very fair, but she did a mind control trick just off hand with no training and without even knowing she had force potential 5 seconds ago.

[Anacronian]

We see her training the power to influence minds when she is captured - I just though what she did with the troops was the same thing.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Comparing Rey beating Ren (who was already wounded) to Anakin besting Maul after just picking up a sabre is utter bollocks. REn is clearly not fully trained (otherwise big ominous boss man wouldn't have to call him back to finish his training) and I'd be surprised if he's had any practice or training in sabre-to-sabre combat since he killed the other apprentices since there aren't any other lightsabre-wielders.

Maul, on the other hand, was a fully-trained Sith who had trained for far longer in anti-Jedi combat.

[Patroklos]

All your points apply ro Rey x1000. At least Finn had probably had some melee training at boot camp if tht cattle prod trooper is any indication. Rey had nothing, she should cut herself to death with that light saber as Kylie laughed at her (as should Finn).

[Abacus]

Kylo Ren is actually much more fascinating than Gandalf or ATG make him out to be. Far from being Vader, his character is being created around the fact that he truly desires to *be* Vader. He felt betrayed by his family and was further seduced by Snoak, but once he was on the path to becoming a Sith Lord, he looked towards a new idol -- and one which happened to be on the family tree. To assume that he is a bad character because he isn't a great as Vader was in ANH is stupid, BECAUSE HE ISN'T THERE YET. Kylo Ren will become far more interesting than he already is in Episode VIII, as he finishing his training with Snoak and due to his wounds, is able to physically embrace his idol, as well as in spirit, by donning a life-preservation suit.

I knew one of the original cast was going to die and I knew it was going to be Han. Nothing let on in trailers, but just from interviews long before the movie, you knew that Harrison Ford wanted out of Star Wars and had wished his character had died at Endor -- well, now he got to have his moment and it's over with.

Captain Phasma isn't dead. She's too cool looking a character to be killed off so quickly, especially since Disney knows (or had better damned well know) not to make the same mistake Lucas did with either Darth Maul or Boba Fett. Phasma is the new Boba Fett, and I expect her to show up again in the next film, this time with much more pizzazz.

Regarding the scale: it did seem a bit minamilistic, but not terribly so. The travel time for a lot of the hyperspace jumps was wonky, but I guess you could put it down to them being in the same area of space.

@Mange: The First Order has more than a single capitol ship. We see two or three different of the new SDs in the film, if you look carefully.

As for the Resistance, they are technically not associated with the New Republic, as you'd remember if you'd paid close enough attention to the opening credits. They even mention in the briefing before the battle against the planetoid weapon that if things go badly, they might have to send in a request for help from the New Republic fleet. The Resistance, modeled on the Rebel Alliance, keeps itself fairly mobile and seems to operate on a definitive guerilla setting.

What does the First Order control? That is a good question, but we can make inferrences based on the fact that you don't construct a planetoid-sized super weapon with a large garrison and accompanying capitol ships without having a large economic base. My guess is we'll see more in the next film with the fight being waged against the First Order's territory in the Core or the Outer Rim (although the Outer Rim is less likely, considering that is where Finn was originally headed towards in order to *flee* from the First Order).

The energy source for the Starkiller is actually pretty cool in my opinion. It's not that bad. It's also pretty cool since it can act as a weapon just by recharging it's main gun. The ability to fire multiple planet-destroying beams is also awesome.

[Elheru Aran]

You know what didn't really make sense to me?

The map. I don't care if they didn't have all of it-- either it had the beginning point of Luke's journey, or the end. If the Resistance had the end-point, why did they need the other part of the map? If the part of the map that Poe saved had the end-point, why the hell did they need the rest of the map?

The only explanation that I can think of is that perhaps that section of the galaxy is little explored so they don't have 100% knowledge of the systems in that region, and there may be too many to easily explore when you're trying to find a single guy who's actually trying to hide.

[Skylon]

So, was this contrived as fuck? Yes. From the BB-8, Finn and Rey all intersecting at the same point - to Han finding the Falcon - Poe randomly making it back to the Rebellion and R2-D2 just happening to boot up by the end - that has got to be my biggest criticism of the film.

Was it entertaining? Yes. The new leads - Finn, Rey and Poe were all excellent - the humor worked - the "cute" beats all worked but the world - it all felt so familiar. Like slipping into a comfortable old jacket. After the early concept of bringing "Balance to the Force" everything about the prequels felt washed away - and I didn't think about them at all - this has set up a solid premise for Episode VIII to build off of. Luke I guess will be a Yoda to Rey - but hopefully a more active presence than just "sage old man." Finn still needs to recover - but he will - and I guess will further develop his bromance with Poe. Kylo Ren - I'm guessing Han's dying gesture will have some bearing on the character going forward.

I've noticed some corners of the internet complain that Han's death lacked heroism. Han's impulse is to shoot, punch or run away from, any threat - it felt like during that scene he was holding back from all those impulses - which is heroism in my book. Everything about Han was broadcasting "There is no fucking way this is going to work." He still tries, and even his last moment is to try and re-connect his son with his humanity.

I think my only regret is that I hoped this would have a "last ride" or Luke, Leia and Han - together. I get what they did structurally, and how the story prevented this. Luke's isolation makes sense - not just from a "view of the Force" perspective, but he screwed up big - he failed his sister and best friend's SON. That has got to mess with you on an epic level - and I look forward to seeing that in Episode VIII. But, alas, I did want to see the old band together - one more time.

On a final thought, I thought the Millennium Falcon got the best re-introduction of anything from the Original Trilogy - the "That's a piece of junk!" beat before cutting to the Falcon got the biggest laugh out of me in the theater.

[Elheru Aran]

Ahem, a few things (maybe more than a few):

--Han goes to light-speed from inside a hangar. Oookay. Not impossible according to previously known hyperspace rules--they aren't in a gravity well far as I know-- but interesting. Apparently very bad for anybody in the hangar, though (creature trying to eat the Falcon gets splattered, mooks get thrown around).

--They exit hyperspace *inside the planetary shield*... scant miles above the surface of the planet itself. Gravity wells, go fuck yourself. They seem kinda casual about the whole thing, but maybe that's just Han's style. Finn does seem rather nervous about it. Of course he's not a pilot by trade... but it's still apparently unheard-of, and almost certainly highly unsafe. Still, I suppose this does indicate that it's possible to safely exit hyperspace well within the gravity well of a planet. And if you can go that deep into a gravity well, you can go through it, at least at the edges. Interdictor Cruisers are now well-nigh useless.

--The Falcon is a tank. It can (basically) crash-land on another world, and then fly again without any apparent trouble. And this with a ship that's called 'garbage'.

--Maz Katana strikes me as being the new Yoda-type of the movies. A little more OT Yoda than prequel Yoda though. Mystic pronouncements, helping people learn about the Force, etc. I suspect we haven't seen the last of her.

--If Starkiller Base is the whole planet... and yet there are only a few thousand First Order troops... (assuming that the troopers we see at the rally are more or less their entire complement on the planet)... it sorta works that there would be some gaps in security. They'd only be covering areas that they figure are excessively vulnerable. Not much excuse for not using advanced sensors and facial recognition software, though. Guess they blew the budget on building the superweapon to start with?

--How the hell did Chewie get out? That was what I really couldn't buy, out of the whole movie. He sets off the explosion in the... whatever it was... when he's right in there, in the middle of it. Then later, out of nowhere, he shows up with the Falcon to save Rey's ass. Just... what?

--Rey has piloting experience... how? She was apparently abandoned on Jakku as a child (the implication is quite strong, as previously noted, that who abandoned her was Luke, given that it flashed back when she found Luke's saber). Perhaps Urgal (or whatever his name was, the salvage gang-lord) permitted her to fly a few pick-up missions or something, she does say something to that effect ("I've flown a few ships, never offworld though" or some such).

--Was there a ground battle on Jakku? Perhaps that, along with the fall of Star Destroyers and such (I never noticed a Mon Cal ship, but then apart from those nice angular Star Destroyers it might have been hard to tell a Mon Cal ship from a sand dune) was what desertified the planet? Mostly I'm going off the AT-AT that Rey lives in, but it's possible that it was thrown out from a Star Destroyer during impact.

--Flashbacks. That's new. As far as I know, the only mind-trippy thing that happened in the previous movie canon was Luke's experience in the cave in ESB. And Anakin's dreams in AOTC. But nope, we get an extended flashback from Rey. Interesting, but I'm not sure that stylistically it meshes with the rest of the canon. Of course the new movies are a divergence in that fashion...

--'The Force Awakens'. 'There has been an awakening'. And so forth. Perhaps Rey is going to be some kind of penultimate Jedi/Force user or some such, being after all a third-generation Skywalker (if she is indeed Luke's child)? Hence her Mary-Sueish untrained power? That could explain both Snoke's desire to train her and an apparent jealousy on Kylo Ren's part (he seems very fixated on finding her).

--Kylo Ren is very... expressively emotional for a Sith-type figure. Maul? We only saw him for bits of one movie, but he seemed like a very cool (as in calm-ish) chap. The only real divergence from that is taunting Obi-wan when he's knocked him into the pit by striking sparks off the edge with his lightsaber. Dooku? He's fucking Christopher Lee, he never bats a hair until he loses his last fight in ROTS. Palpatine... does show some emotion, but apart from his last scene in ROTJ, he never really gets pissed off. Vader... is interesting; in ROTS Anakin loses his cool with Padme and Obi-wan, but in the OT he never really goes wild. Choking people, sure.

Kylo Ren on the other hand... bad news and he destroys a console with his lightsaber. Walks into the interrogation room and Rey's not there, he does the same thing. This has happened before enough that a pair of stormtroopers know well enough to get the fuck out of the way when they see the sparks flying. This interests me. A lack of true Sith discipline, perhaps? He does seem to struggle with being appropriately 'Dark Side' enough (gotta love the lighting in that final confrontation with Han).

What else...

Minimalism. God, the minimalism.

--How the fuck is Starkiller Base's beam weapon and the destruction of what appears to be a city-world with large moons/space stations orbiting it visible from another planet entirely? Even with discrete explosions visible. At maximum, it should only have been a momentary glimpse in the sky, like randomly seeing a star in the daylight.

--I got the impression that whatever world it was the First Order hit, the Republic fleet was at that world at that time, and as such got destroyed in the conflagration. Of course that doesn't stop the Millennium Falcon and X-wings from getting away from the explosion of Starkiller Base...

--Snoke makes me suspect a Dark Empire resurrected-Emperor plot twist. Just something about the way he looks. Hopefully JJ has the sense to avoid that kind of shitty EU reference, though.

The overall impression I get, going off the movie (haven't read any of the other novels), as far as the political situation goes:

--post ROTJ, I suppose the Alliance fought the Empire to a standstill (Battle of Jakku, from what I hear, was a big deal as far as that went) and forged a treaty to recreate the Republic.

--Behind the scenes, Snoke is some kind of Imperial loyalist. Perhaps one of the Emperor's pet Sith-wannabes, or some other kind of Dark Side follower. That would be rather odd from the movie-only canon though, as they only ever really mention Jedi and Sith. So I'm going with Sith-wannabe. Especially since that seems to be pretty obviously the direction Ben/Kylo Ren is going.

--Luke tries to start up the Jedi and all that. Takes Ben Solo as an apprentice. Snoke corrupts Ben, Ben destroys Luke's ambitions (did he kill the other Jedi? Or was that actually just Rey having a classic 'bad feeling' premonition? Because the guy that Kylo Ren kills in her flashback looked a lot like one of the Jakku dwellers).

--Meanwhile Snoke builds up a separatist movement within what remains of the Empire, sort of like how Hitler built up the Nazis from the remains of the German Army after WWI (seriously the Nazi analogies were much stronger in this movie than in the OT, almost ham-handedly so). By... say a few years after Jakku or so... it's strong enough that it's capable of breaking free and becoming a political movement in its own right. I suspect that while Starkiller Base was the most visible portion of it in this movie, there's more that we haven't seen. The comment in the opening crawl that it comes from the 'ashes of the Empire' suggests that the FO may have taken over what was left of the Empire after the treaty post-Jakku. If that included an industrial base, then that allows for the TIE fighters, new starships, those weird spider-walkers we saw in the distance on the ice-planet, the new stormtrooper armour and blasters, all that. So, hopefully, the minimalism will be fixed in future episodes.

[Elheru Aran]

Kylo Rens powers seem to fluctuate quite a bit with him going from stopping a blaster bolt in mid-flight to having trouble moving a single piece of metal - [snip]

Just wanted to comment on this. He's been wounded by that point (bowcaster round from Chewbacca, at least one lightsaber strike from Finn IIRC), plus he just went through some major emotional turmoil with his father, so it's no wonder that his abilities may be fluctating. Force powers do seem to be affected by emotion to a large degree-- it's no coincidence that they talk about 'being calm' and all that in the OT and prequels-- so I didn't see much of an inconsistency there.

[darkjedi521]

One doesn't realize just how well the music for the 20th Century Fox logo meshes with the movie until its absent.

[Abacus]

Regarding Rey's abilities, both with the Force and with piloting: I believe everything is down to both her genes (as I also firmly now believe that she is Luke's daughter, and therefore the granddaughter of the great gadgeteer, Anakin Skywalker) and through the Force. If you've ever been part of the Star Wars paper and pencil RPGs, you'd know that there are times when people and characters are able to perform certain things without seemingly having prior experience. So I think it's quite easy to believe that due to her swelling power in the Force, Rey is able to use and perform ever more complex tasks, seemingly at will. We'll see later whether or not this ability plays out further or reaches a plateau, from which only real training can take her further.

[Elheru Aran]

It is almost a certainty that she's going to start training with Luke, IMO. If he's the only Jedi left, there's nobody she can very well go hang out with, is there? No Yoda types left as far as we know (Maz is only a 'Yoda type' in the *role* that she plays, not so much with the Jedi instruction). So I suspect we'll see a Jedi-apprentice Rey in Episode 8, who will get smacked down thoroughly at the end of the movie (if they follow the pattern of conforming to the OT). By whom? Good question. Either they'll pump up Kylo Ren, bring Snoke onto the stage, or introduce a new Sith-wannabe villain.

[Patroklos]

Regarding Rey's abilities, both with the Force and with piloting: I believe everything is down to both her genes (as I also firmly now believe that she is Luke's daughter, and therefore the granddaughter of the great gadgeteer, Anakin Skywalker) and through the Force. If you've ever been part of the Star Wars paper and pencil RPGs, you'd know that there are times when people and characters are able to perform certain things without seemingly having prior experience. So I think it's quite easy to believe that due to her swelling power in the Force, Rey is able to use and perform ever more complex tasks, seemingly at will. We'll see later whether or not this ability plays out further or reaches a plateau, from which only real training can take her further.

I can think of no no cannon instance where people could perform complex tasks just because of the force. Its always been the case you had to train to use it effectively. So while I can hand way a crude force push or pull in an emotional moment, or perhaps the force telling you to sense where to shoot that is not the same as being an expert at light saber technique (against another force user, trained no less, to that at least cancels out) or flying through the heart of foundered warships after no practice with an unfamiliar craft. That's just bullshit.

And yeah I realize its not new bullshit. Kid Anakin was also a natural genius when it came to tinkering (though not repairing freaking starships, and we never see this skill used again for 2 and a half movies). Its a habit with these movies. A BAD habit. And its getting worse. Luke could hold his own as a pilot but after its established he had lots of practice. Anakin was a natural tinkerer and a passable pilot but we see him still usually losing after lots of pod racing practice. Rey is now an expert pilot accomplishing feats that rival anything we have seen in all seven films with ZERO development to establish why. She is a master engineer who can repair star ships with ease though there is no explanation as to why (Would you let your local garbage man work on the Boeing you are about to fly on?). She is a linguist of the highest order, not just knowing various human/alien languages from where she lives but off world alien and droid languages as well, with no reason given for why this is possible. And to top it all of she is a lightsaber expert at least as good but probably better than than this movies established expert of the art form. The reason why? Shits a giggles.

Speaking of being a natural combination aeronautical/mechanical/electrical/hypermatter engineer. Why is she poor again? Sure she won't leave Jakku but there is an economy there and anyone with her skills would be in high demand. Especially in her environment actually, passible car mechanics are gods in developing world countries. In fact, why are all these super engineering technology inclined genius force types not the leading engineers and technocrats of the galaxy?

[Anacronian]

Kylo Rens powers seem to fluctuate quite a bit with him going from stopping a blaster bolt in mid-flight to having trouble moving a single piece of metal - [snip]

Just wanted to comment on this. He's been wounded by that point (bowcaster round from Chewbacca, at least one lightsaber strike from Finn IIRC), plus he just went through some major emotional turmoil with his father, so it's no wonder that his abilities may be fluctating. Force powers do seem to be affected by emotion to a large degree-- it's no coincidence that they talk about 'being calm' and all that in the OT and prequels-- so I didn't see much of an inconsistency there.

Well if you want to comment on it, you should probably note first that I didn't say it was any kind of inconsistency I just took note of the fact.

[Patroklos]

It would have been nice if there was a line somewhere when Rey goes to the town to sell her stuff. Random alien "Hey Rey, glad to see you made it back, the sand pirates are out in force!" Rey, as she steps out of a more substantial pilotable aircraft: "They were no problem, I lost in the canyons, works every time! Well, except that ONE time! Hey, do you have any of those power converters left, I have to do some work on this bucket of bolts" *lovingly pats the side of her POS ship*

You establish she is a pilot. You establish she is good a flying in tights spaces while being chased by enemies. You establish she has experience keeping her own craft maintained. How hard was that? The only visual thing you have to change is replace her CGI land speeder with a CGI atmospheric craft.

[bilateralrope]

and of course pulls a lightsaber away from a trained sith.

Is Ren a Sith ?

There was no mention of the "Darth" title. No mention of the Sith at all. The Sith tradition might have died with Vader and Palpatine. Leaving Snoak and Ren as darksiders who are not Sith.

Phasma is the new Boba Fett,

She managed to get an embarrassing defeat quickly enough.

[darth_timon]

Copied and pasted from my website, hence the Star Trek bit first.

Today marks the end of one long wait and the start of another – with The Force Awakens finally here (my review is further down this page, be warned, whilst I won’t be going out of my way to spoil the film, I cannot guarantee no spoilers), I feel it’s a good time to reflect on that journey.

When I first heard that Disney had purchased Lucasfilm and were planning on making a new trilogy, I will admit to skepticism. Whatever you may think of the prequel trilogy (and indeed, the original trilogy), the six films that comprised the saga tell a complete story – the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin Skywalker (which of course, several other themes running parallel to that).

As time went by, and trailers began to emerge for The Force Awakens, I found my concerns gradually being replaced by a sense of hope and anticipation. The trailers revealed a less flashy and more lived-in feel to the universe JJ Abrams was trying to build, and the news that he wanted to build sets and use make up and physical props more than CGI was encouraging. There was something about seeing familiar settings and characters that evoked the charm of the original trilogy, rather than the bland imagery of the prequels.

With each new trailer, the Star Wars fan in me grew more excited. I was also remarkably impressed at how few spoilers there were – the trailers gave us new clips and moments without actually giving anything away – and everything about them heightened the desire to embrace my inner Jedi.

In the final few days building up to the film, I felt like a kid at Christmas. I even had a Star Wars Advent calendar that I was using to countdown to the big day!

As this was going on, another sci-fi saga was quietly going about its business, slipping under the radar as Star Wars hogged the limelight. The news that a trailer to Star Trek Beyond would debut before The Force Awakens was very cool to me – and it was yet another reason to look forward to the 17th December. I managed to resist watching the trailer online, so my first dose of it was on the big screen.

If you don’t want any potential spoilers for Star Trek Beyond, stop reading round about now.

image

Obviously there’s quite a lot going on, no context to place anything in and the trailer is less than two minutes long, so giving away major plot points at this stage is impossible anyway. What I will say is the film appears to retain the fun spirit of the first two, but with a different director (Justin Lin replaced JJ Abrams for obvious reasons) the style feels different, with more colour and vibrance. The Enterprise appears to once again get her ass kicked – the crew is stranded on the frontier, and beyond that, I have no idea. Personally, I feel it looks good, but we shall have to wait and see.

So, on to the main event. The Force Awakens. What do I think?

Final warning, if you want to avoid spoilers, stop reading now.

Still here?

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Here we go.

image

The film is a visual feast from the moment it starts, yet not in an in-your-face sort of way. This is a lived-in universe, with physical objects you could reach out and touch, rather than the CGI-laden prequels. Everything – the sets, costumes, puppets and the odd burst of CGI work here and there – is done with great care, reverence and attention to detail.

After all the theories about who the bad guy really was and about who, if anyone, would die, the film gives us what is effectively A New Hope, but reworked and brought up to date. There is an early revelation about Kylo Ren’s true identity, and a confrontation near the end of the film based on this that you half-suspect is coming, yet it still manages to hit you where it hurts.

Of the newcomers, it’s actress Daisy Ridley as Rey who steals the show. After all the (admittedly small) pointers in the trailer that point to John Boyega’s character being the next Jedi, instead it’s Rey who has a strong connection to the Force, and Ridley portrays her journey from a lonely scavenger to budding Jedi brilliantly.

Boyega also does well. Like Rey, Finn is trying to find his identity, having abandoned the life he knew. Despite some outward signs of fear, Finn is very brave, loyal and determined, eager to prove himself.

Oscar Isaac plays Poe and it’s hard to really judge his performance because we don’t see too much of his character. The X-Wing vs TIE fighter moments we’re treated to are breathtaking and beautiful and we’re also treated to what could best be described as a homage to A New Hope’s trench run.

Kylo Ren is played by Adam Driver and his character is perhaps best described as a Sith who lacks discipline. He is full of angst and anxiety and is being pulled in different directions – Driver does a pretty good job with Ren – a pity he wouldn’t have been old enough to play Anakin in the prequels, he would have done a good job!

So, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher. They both did well at playing their respective characters – both Han and Leia are weary of everything, which is hardly surprising given what they’ve been through. Mark Hamill isn’t in the film long enough to establish anything!

So how do I feel about the film? The visuals are incredible, the music evokes memories of the original saga, and the performances are excellent. I need to see it again, to properly take it all in, but I can honestly say that I loved it. The Force has truly awakened!

[Dartzap]

Can I have some confirmation/denial on one point?

Throughout the film, there is no real evidence (from my point of view) that Finn has force powers, and he seems to have all the grace with the lightsaber as a gundark ice skating. He, naturally, is more at home with blasters. The only reason Kylo noticed him was due to the emotional turmoil emanating from from a normally stoical stormie.

So is he force sensitive? Yay or nay?

[Q99]

Is Ren a Sith ?

There was no mention of the "Darth" title. No mention of the Sith at all. The Sith tradition might have died with Vader and Palpatine. Leaving Snoak and Ren as darksiders who are not Sith.

He's a Knight of Ren, and apparently Snoke is only now deciding to complete his training.

He did have that cool trick with the blaster early on, but he's emotionally shaky- and was wounded.

It does strike me how Not-A-Sith he is. Kylo wants to be Vader, but when he gets bad news, he lashes out at inanimate objects.

Right now he's more like the Inquisitors from Rebels.

She managed to get an embarrassing defeat quickly enough.

I don't think she's dead, so hopefully we'll see her again.

[Q99]

Can I have some confirmation/denial on one point?

Throughout the film, there is no real evidence (from my point of view) that Finn has force powers, and he seems to have all the grace with the lightsaber as a gundark ice skating. He, naturally, is more at home with blasters. The only reason Kylo noticed him was due to the emotional turmoil emanating from from a normally stoical stormie.

So is he force sensitive? Yay or nay?

Nay, not that we've seen.

And yea, Kylo noted the emotional guy who was the only one not going around shooting.

[Batman]

Undecided. There's no obvious evidence he is but for a normal he did surprisingly well in his lightsabre duel with Kylo. Rey-who seems to be ridiculously strong in the Force-didn't do much better initially.

[bilateralrope]

He's a Knight of Ren, and apparently Snoke is only now deciding to complete his training.

I'd like to know more about these Knights of Ren.

Undecided. There's no obvious evidence he is but for a normal he did surprisingly well in his lightsabre duel with Kylo. Rey-who seems to be ridiculously strong in the Force-didn't do much better initially.

Yet he didn't do too well against that melee Stormtrooper. I think Ren just sucks at lightsaber combat.

[Batman]

Then he should have sucked even more against Kylo, and yet he held his own for surprisingly long.

[Sgt_Artyom]

I'm rather curious about why the First Order would destroy a Republic world. General Hux mentions the Republic Fleet in his speech and it sounded like it was rather vaunted in the Republic.

These guys seem to be having trouble fighting a little splinter faction of the New Republic so why in the hell would they destroy the planet, plunging themselves (I'd assume) into war. Seems like a pointless thing to do, you know? Evil for the sake of being evil almost.

[Dartzap]

Unless they expect some Warlords in the Remnant to back 'em up.