Rogue One Trailer

[Lavi]

I'm wondering how Star Wars Rebels will tie into Rogue One (or vice versa).

 

[Brandon Rhea]

You know how I write female characters?

Like male characters.

Because gender literally means squat.

That's not entirely true. The arc of a character in this genre doesn't necessarily have to factor gender into it. But there are nuances to how men and women speak, behave, move, think, and more that you have to take into account. Some of that will be done by the actors, but some of it also has to be done by the writer. If you're not considering those differences, then you're not writing a female character. You're writing a male character who you gender-swapped or, at best, some sort of androgynous character.

Now, that can work, sure. Arguably, I think that Ahsoka Tano - who I adore, so don't get me wrong - could have just as easily been a young man and it wouldn't have really changed much of anything. Whereas Rey, on the other hand, was written as a female character. There are little things that she does and says where you know she was written specifically to be a woman, rather than the neutral "I'm just going to write a character and gender doesn't matter to it" idea. I if you really want to write a female character, you should actually write a female character.

That's especially important in a purely text-based setting like writing a book or even RPing on the site, where you don't have an actress who can bring her own femininity to it. It's entirely dependent on you, the writer, to do that.

For a dude, of course, that's easier said than done. We bring our own experiences and perspectives to what we write, but that's why it's important to understand women and understand how to write stories about women. I wrote a short story about Princess Leia and Mon Mothma that I'm very proud of. I showed it to Boli, and he liked it - but he gave me good feedback about how I wasn't necessarily taking those subtle differences into account and was writing fairly gender-neutral dialogue. I think he was right about that.

I frankly don't care about diversity, only well directed, well acted characters in a compelling story about rebel commandos stealing plans to a giant space testicle.

I think as men we're privileged to be able to say that, because we've never had to deal with being underrepresented in film, including Star Wars films. That's why it's important to look at things from other perspectives too and seek to understand how people who are different than us feel about it. We take for granted that most movies are filled to the brim with men, especially white men. Women notice that they are underrepresented. People of color notice that they are underrepresented. My favorite thing about the release of The Force Awakens is how young girls reacted so positively to Rey and were so happy to see that the new hero of Star Wars looked like them.

Sometimes we should consciously think about adding more diversity to film. JJ Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy made a big step in that direction, and it paid off well.

 

[TheBlackace]

Can we not turn this thread into gender politics please, I know it's important but I'd rather just talk about the film

 

[Johnnysaurus Rex]

A female lead, and what Brandon said about it being important we now have two films with a female lead, is pertinent to discussion of the film.

But to your desire for the conversation to move to another topic: I didn't care for the trailer. I personally am just not interested in the story of how the Rebellion go the Death Star plans and the fact that I know they succeed kind of robs some of the stakes for me. The argument stands that in this type of story it will be driven by characters or the journey to said heist of the plans, but it just isn't catching me.

 

[TheBlackace]

That defiantly is was a major factor that I thought would detract from my enjoyment, knowing the ending to something always detracts from the experience. But then again it just gives them all the more reason to add in some exciting twists that we won't see coming

 

[Brandon Rhea]

A female lead, and what Brandon said about it being important we now have two films with a female lead, is pertinent to discussion of the film.

Indeed. It won't be ignored just because some people don't want to discuss it. But if that's not the part of the film you want to discuss, you don't have to take part in that particular discussion. You can wait for that discussion to move on, or post something else about the film in the thread for people to discuss as well.

But to your desire for the conversation to move to another topic: I didn't care for the trailer. I personally am just not interested in the story of how the Rebellion go the Death Star plans and the fact that I know they succeed kind of robs some of the stakes for me. The argument stands that in this type of story it will be driven by characters or the journey to said heist of the plans, but it just isn't catching me.

That last part is what's interesting to me about this, yeah, as well as just seeing what the story is in general.

 

[TheBlackace]

Now I feel like a bad person

 

[Johnnysaurus Rex]

That last part is what's interesting to me about this, yeah, as well as just seeing what the story is in general.

It's only so interesting as they are able to deliver, but yeah it's hard to judge that from one trailer.

Now I feel like a bad person

I wouldn't. You weren't aware of how it pertained to the film and didn't want the film to get sidetracked by what you thought was going to be a unrelated, (and as often times goes on the internet) heated debate.

 

[SirNoodles]

Only problem with the trailer is that the film looks like it's a Hunger Games film. The Hunger Games is now a rebellion series just like Star Wars. I don't have a problem at all with it but I feel unless the film is different to the trailer, it won't feel like Star Wars. More like the Hunger Games (as I said before).

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Why do you think it feels like The Hunger Games?

 

[SirNoodles]

I don't know why but to me Rogue One doesn't seem like Star Wars. After seeing Mocking Jay Part 1 & 2, I feel as though they seem very similar to what is shown in the Rogue One trailer. It seems to have a similar story line too: One individual hates the Empire (equivalent to Capitol) and they join a rebellion (District 13's Rebellion) and they end up trying to destroy the Death Star which is the Empire's greatest possession (just like the Hunger Games is to the Capitol).

 

[Kiro]

I don't know why but to me Rogue One doesn't seem like Star Wars. After seeing Mocking Jay Part 1 & 2, I feel as though they seem very similar to what is shown in the Rogue One trailer. It seems to have a similar story line too: One individual hates the Empire (equivalent to Capitol) and they join a rebellion (District 13's Rebellion) and they end up trying to destroy the Death Star which is the Empire's greatest possession (just like the Hunger Games is to the Capitol).

Ewww. Just... ewwww.

 

[SirNoodles]

Ewww. Just... ewwww.

?

 

[TheBlackace]

I don't know why but to me Rogue One doesn't seem like Star Wars. After seeing Mocking Jay Part 1 & 2, I feel as though they seem very similar to what is shown in the Rogue One trailer. It seems to have a similar story line too: One individual hates the Empire (equivalent to Capitol) and they join a rebellion (District 13's Rebellion) and they end up trying to destroy the Death Star which is the Empire's greatest possession (just like the Hunger Games is to the Capitol).

The same thing could be said about the OT but that was great right? There's no use comparing a movie that's only shown a single 2 minute trailer, there isn't enough to go on.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Well, I mean... this story always happened in some form in Star Wars. This isn't a new story. It was directly referenced in A New Hope. So there was always a battle to go after the Empire's greatest weapon. Other than some very basic physical similarities between Felicity Jones and Jennifer Lawrence, I don't really see many parallels between Jyn and Katniss either.

Katniss, though the lead character in the series, is a very reactive character. She's essentially dragged along by other people who are using her as a propaganda tool against the Capital. Except when she's trying to save her friends or family, and when she volunteered as tribute, she's rarely a proactive character. Not until the very end, at least. Which is part of what makes her interesting (at least in some cases - Catching Fire and her story there are far superior to Mockingjay), because she has to deal with all the crap that people are throwing at her.

In the case of Rogue One, we have a reckless but clearly highly skilled character who appears to be part of the Rebel Alliance (or at least is recruited by it) and is given a mission to carry out. She doesn't appear to be dragged along, or someone whose sole value to the Rebellion is her symbolism in propaganda. She has clear utility. The Rebel Alliance needs her skills, not her face, and that already sets her apart from Katniss.

 

[SirNoodles]

I guess you're both right. I'm not judging the film by the trailer because trailers can give you a completely different expectation to the actually film itself (that's happened to me before). I still can't wait for Rogue One though!

 

[Marf]

You're writing a male character who you gender-swapped or, at best, some sort of androgynous character.

While I agree with your post, I think it's important to note that gender characteristics are still fluid. Some men are more feminine and some women are more masculine, everybody is different and there needs to be more representation of androgynous, gender-fluid or LGBT folks.

 

[Jira]

For the record I hated Garteth Edward's Godzilla, so I'm cautiously optimistic about his first outing in Star Wars.

I really like the aesthetics presented in this trailer. Especially the pristine, white Star Destroyers. That being said, the CGI AT-ATs look more weightless and unrealistic than the ones presented in the Rebels cartoon show for some reason. Cape-guy looked really cool.

I also hated the Inception horns and the use of the familiar Star Wars tune played in the style of a monophonic, pensive piano riff. I think it's pretentious and way overdone.

Also, am I the only one that gets like a fan film vibe from this trailer? Like the aesthetics are there, but I just feel like the tone is off. At the end of the day, I'm expecting a trite military drama that looks Star Wars-y, but doesn't feel Star Wars-y.

 

[Outlander]

I think Maybe because this is the first non-saga film we've had? I mean, all of those films have a very specific tone, or at least the good ones do. This has an intentionally different tone, but is still set within the universe.

For the record I hated Garteth Edward's Godzilla, so I'm cautiously optimistic about his first outing in Star Wars.

I really like the aesthetics presented in this trailer. Especially the pristine, white Star Destroyers. That being said, the CGI AT-ATs look more weightless and unrealistic than the ones presented in the Rebels cartoon show for some reason. Cape-guy looked really cool.

I also hated the Inception horns and the use of the familiar Star Wars tune played in the style of a monophonic, pensive piano riff. I think it's pretentious and way overdone.

Also, am I the only one that gets like a fan film vibe from this trailer? Like the aesthetics are there, but I just feel like the tone is off. At the end of the day, I'm expecting a trite military drama that looks Star Wars-y, but doesn't feel Star Wars-y.

 

[jpchewy01]

She's like a female Kyle Katarn!