Star Wars the Force Awakens pitfalls.

[Jack Action]

Very few are going to outright complain about interracial romances (well, there were people complaining that the guy was black in the first place).

The idea that it might put people off, might hurt sales, even if the reason isn't given as such isn't so outlandish, though. If there is a chance that having an overt romance might reduce the profitability of the film, well, just easier to avoid that. Films do tend to have a disproportionately small amount of black men paired with white women, safer to not rock the boat.

Also, it doesn't require this to be an issue, just that the makers of the film to perceive that it is, or possibly might be one.

But if the fear of the KKK complaining is what keeps the number of black dude/white chick pairings low, what's the excuse for the infinitely lower number of white dude/black chick pairings?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Anyway I highly doubt an interracial romance would affect the profitability of Star Wars. I mean it would most likely attract more money if anything, the only people that would stop supporting Star Wars would be a small group of racists yet the expansion of diversity would attract more people than that group.

Eh, it's still unusual enough to be noteworthy, though, so presumable the people making these decisions don't think so.

Having said that, looking at the decisions that get made, I don't get the impression that they are on the ball too often.

But if the fear of the KKK complaining is what keeps the number of black dude/white chick pairings low, what's the excuse for the infinitely lower number of white dude/black chick pairings?

Well, that's not what I meant. In any case, infinitely lower? I'd have thought it was rather more common.

 

[Jack Action]

But if the fear of the KKK complaining is what keeps the number of black dude/white chick pairings low, what's the excuse for the infinitely lower number of white dude/black chick pairings?

Well, that's not what I meant. In any case, infinitely lower? I'd have thought it was rather more common.

Honestly, the only one I can really think of would be Austin Powers, and by extension whichever Bond movie that particular one was a parody of.

Might just be my limited experience, though.

Remember the reverse being somewhat more common in various HBO movies about which I can't really remember anything except they had tryhard supposed badass leads.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I don't think trends in the past are a good indication of things that might happen in the future. For example, would you be surprised if they came across a character who was just casually gay in a future Star Wars film? Probably not, even though that's almost unheard of even in the recent past.

I would be somewhat surprised, at least if a SW film came out in the near future, in which a major character was casually gay, because that's not something we see very often in similar films, and I'd not expect SW to deviate from the norm on that. More long term, have to wait and see IMHO.

In any case, I'm not saying that an interracial romance can't happen in SW, I'm agreeing with the OP that they might fear committing.

 

[Lightknight]

1. The empire doesn't have to be gone. Remember that time that an assassin killed President JFK and the US ceased to exist? Neither do I. The empire had worlds backing them up, hence "Empire". If they were really going to fall just because leatherface in a robe died then that's pretty weak sauce.

2. It will matter to some. It would be better to see Han die but he's already signed on for the next and is a much beloved character (aka merchandise).

3. Interracial lovin is hott. Don't knock. Just because people are white doesn't mean they're all bigots who get flustered when a black and white character smooch. We grew up in an integrated school system. My friends were black, Hispanic and whatever else. This may still offend the oldest generation but the 60's the previous generation grew up in and the integrated schools this generation grew up in all but killed the notion that people of different races can't like or love one another. We certainly no longer get pissy if we see a couple together. The people who do get mad at that, maybe they SHOULD be made mad? If someone else's happiness makes you made because you're racist then you don't deserve to be catered to.

4. There is literally a death star on the movie poster. Looks like it's being constructed on that ice planet. A death star is important. It's a tool that can wipe out entire civilizations. If the empire was fragmented by their leader's death then having a death star is like having a nuke in that it maintains the legitimacy of the threat. This would be preferable to creating an entirely new enemy when we're just introducing new characters. Better to maintain existing enemies and familiar threats without cluttering origin stories.

5. Oh, you mean ones where they're like flipping around and total experts in their use? Yeah, it really seems to take away the emotion of those fights like we saw in the original. Competence is fine but ridiculous choreography would be silly.

 

[Synigma]

1. I read a little into the Empire's fleet, because I love the design of Star Destroyers, and they were suppose to have tens of thousands of them... even in the 3rd movie they were suppose to out number the rebels like 10 to 1. They are diminished but not gone...
And besides it's story-writing 101: the good guys have to be the underdogs.

2. I agree with you about Han, I'm scared that they are just going to copy-paste him from A New Hope... cross your fingers we're wrong. I don't think it'll be Chewy who dies though... I kind of agree with the RedLetterMedia guys prediction on who is going to die...

3. Seriously? This isn't a concern, this is a foot-note at best. Anyone who does make an issue of this can go screw themselves. aba1 summed it up for me:

Do people even care about "interracial dating" I still can't believe that's a term XD. I dunno maybe it is because I am from Canada and my dating record reads like a bingo chart to people who care about "race"

4. My only thing about the death star: They are over-done, if you're going to have one it's time to try something new with it... like maybe... *gasp* NOT blowing it up in one movie. It would make a great threat for the next movies and final battle site in the last movie. Frankly if it gets blown up then I really will be out of reasons to fear the empire at all.

5. The clips from the one light saber fight we've been seeing seem to imply it's a skilled dark side vs a scrub light side... kinda like what the fight between Vader and Luke would have been if Obi Wan wasn't there to take one for the team, so I'm actually excited to see that.

 

[Cycloptomese]

Yeah... The thing about the lightsabers. One of the many issues I had with the prequels was the gratuitous lightsaber porn. You gotta keep the lightsaber use to a minimum in order for it to have more impact. Luke Skywalker did not take out his lightsaber very often, but when he did you knew he meant business. I even recall a room full of kids in the prequels, all holding lightsabers. That's just insultingly ridiculous.

Which leads me to kids. No kids! The prequels sucked and there were sucky kids in them. The original trilogy was awesome and there were no kids. It can't be coincidence!

 

[cleric of the order]

I'm more interested in how the fuck Finn managed to survive being shot down + reentry.
That shouldn't be possible Tie's have no shields, poor Armour, no life support systems.
Yeah it has crash webbing but one of our main charterers was sent to the atmosphere at high speeds, shielded from the environment, and crashing in into a desert at beyond terminal velocity.
Shouldn't he just straight up be dead

Second, we see lots of good old empire stuff, you know, stormtroopers and tie fighters and stuff. WHY? The primary focus of the original trilogy was to overthrow the empire and take back the galaxy for the republic. What happened? It's been over 30 years and they are still kicking around? This i suspect will be halfway explained by it being some remnant faction or by it being a grassroots terrorist kind of group immolating the empire of old. I personally am not a fan of it. I know they love fan service, but to keep the empire around greatly diminishes the events of the original trilogy.

I agree it's dumb.

3. Finn and Rey k-i-s-s-i-n oh, never mind.
Now, I generally avoided info about the movie and just plan to see it once it's out. However, I am pretty certain that the characters of Finn, stormtrooper guy, and Rey, scavenger girl, will almost certainly be our leads. What worries me is that once again the movie might take a half measure rather than go one way or another.

Brace yourselves, I'm going to talk about a bit of a scary subject, Interracial Romances.

As I'm sure most of you have noticed, the characters most likely to be our leads are of the opposite gender. You also may have noticed that the gentleman is black and the lady is white. This creates a touchy situation. It is often the case that the male and female leads fall in love. It's a cliche' true, but it is often effective. It is a form of personal reward for the trials and difficulty of the adventure. We as an audience like to feel like things are going to go well for our heroes after their adventure and a romance that is a product of the adventure is a great way to do this. Our heroes went through some stuff and now are rewarded with a relationship. Also, it tends to fit in well because they are generally going to have grown closer and learned to depend on each other over the course of the adventure anyway so romance is just a stone's throw away.

However, as previously stated, Rey is white and Finn is black. People, particularly white people who make up a large % of the star wars movie going audience, get a little uncomfortable with a black male and white female relationship. It isn't because they are monsters, but because they have some deep primal part of their mind that get's touchy about it. This is why you'll notice lots of films where a white man romances a nonwhite female, but not the other way around. It has to do with our natural perceptions about women as things, for lack of a better word, to be valued and protected along with the inherent us vs them mentality that human nature is geared towards. For this reason, I am worried that the film will want the two character's to be romantically interested in each other but will balk at it when the time comes. I am concerned that they will set up a romance with flirty dialogue and long looks with no real payoff and nobody wants that.

My hope is that they commit one way or the other. Either there is no romantic suggestion at all between the two characters or they go whole hog on it.

What?