The EU is not canon. Not anymore. However, the interesting part for this was that Rey is able to pick up a lightsaber without any formal training in the Jedi arts. There are those of you saying, "so what?" and "it shouldn't matter". It does matter. Luke was trained by Yoda and Obi Wan for 2 full years before he ran off to confront Darth Vader on Bespin. They both warned him to not go, that it was more important that he complete his training. Vader overpowered him on Bespin and he was lucky that all he lost was a hand. We can go one step further with this if that's not convincing enough for you. Before the fall of the Order, the Jedi trained Padawan Learners to eventually become Jedi Knights, a process that typically took 15-20 years. There was training in the Jedi arts, history, etc., and that was all before they were apprenticed to a Master to complete their training and become Knights. If Rey, who was NEVER trained in either the Jedi arts or the Force, can pick up a lightsaber and defeat Kylo Ren, a trained Force sensitive who is strong enough in the Force to stop blaster bolts in mid-air, then it stands to reason that the Younglings and Padawans in the Jedi Temple would have been strong enough to defeat Darth Vader when he marched on it. This is all established canon, yet The Force Awakens abandons the canon of both the Original Trilogy and the Prequels with this non-sensical duel. Why? There is no acceptable explanation for this.

You are not alone sir. I have felt many of the same feelings. There is something missing from The Force Awakens. No one can deny that.

1. How do you rate the The Force Awakens out of ten and in relation to previous Star Wars movies? 4 out of 10. This film is tied with Phantom Menace as far as I am concerned, with Darth Maul being the tiebreaker. Sith, Empire and a New Hope are better obviously, so this film is tied for 4th place. 2. Who is your favourite (new) character so far and why? None. Rey would have been my favorite but her actions so far in the film have trashed current in-film canon. 3. Who is your least favourite (new) character so far and why? Kylo Ren. This kid thinks he is Darth Vader's equal, when the only thing he is good at is being a bigger ***** than Anakin Skywalker was. 4. Out of the returning Original Trilogy cast, who gave the best performance? Harrison Ford. Hands down. 5. What was the most awesome/epic moment for you in the movie? There really wasn't one. The entire movie felt rushed and was a carbon copy of A New Hope, so I felt empty after watching it. 6. What as the funniest moment for you in the movie? When Rey beat Kylo Ren's ***. That was pure comedy and should never have happened. There is no explanation for what took place as she was never trained in the Jedi Arts. 7. Do you think Rey might be a descendant from the Skywalker line, and if so is she Luke or Leia's daughter? Yes, she is a Skywalker. She is a direct descendant of Luke and it is for that reason that he will not train her in the next film. 8. The death of Han Solo, your thoughts? Should he have died, should it have been done differently? Han's death should have been at Captain Phasma's hands. I would have accepted that. I don't like that he was killed by Emo Vader fanboy Kylo Ren. 9. How do you rate the lightsaber duel out of ten and in relation to previous lightsaber duels? Complete BS and a fallacy. If an untrained Force sensitive can just pick up a lightsaber and beat an advanced student of the Force, then the Younglings in the Council chamber should have overpowered and stomped on Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith. 10. How to you rate the film score out of ten and in relation to scores from the previous movies? And if you have a favourite soundtrack/theme, which was it? 2/10. The opening theme was different when it didn't need to be. If it wasn't broke, why fix it? None of the tracks was overly memorable. 11. If you could change one thing with the movie, what would it be? The entire movie would have been rewritten with an original story. 12. Finn is featured wielding a lightsaber in the film and in promotional material, but he is never actually depicted using the Force. Do you think he is Force sensitive? No. He was easily crushed by Kylo Ren in the forest. No way he is Force Sensitive. I want to be clear with this. I liked The Force Awakens. It was a great action/fantasy film. Lots of action, lots of fun. It was a horrible Star Wars film.

I thought The Force Awakens was a great film. Having said that, I felt that it was a horrible Star Wars film. Here are a list of issues I had with this film: 1. It didn't feel like Star Wars. Call me crazy, but from the text crawl at the beginning of the movie until the credits at the end, this film was missing something. Sure, it had Han, Leia, Chewie, etc., it had all the tangibles, it had nostalgia, but it felt like sitting in a familiar place with a good friend, except that friend wasn't there any more. I felt like the Exile in KOTOR 2. I had returned to a galaxy I once knew, but nothing felt right. All six of the previous episodes(yes, even the Prequels) had a magical feeling to them that reminded me of the essence of Star Wars. Many of you know what this feeling is. This film was devoid of that feeling. I can't describe it, but it wasn't there. 2. Lack of Originality. The Prequels may not have been perfect, but at least they were original stories. This movie was a rehash of A New Hope with fancier visuals. I hope that this will not turn into the disaster that is the Star Trek reboots. We deserve better. 3. Plot points that do not mesh with established canon. This movie feels like a reboot, not a sequel. We are shown a boy who thinks he is Darth Vader's equal, who can stop a blaster bolt in midair, but gets his *** kicked by a total novice in the Jedi arts? Kylo Ren should have crushed Rey instantly with the Force alone given his prowess throughout the film. You can't tell me that she just became instantly strong with the Force when it took Luke 3 years of Jedi training to become strong enough to confront Vader and his Emperor, both of whom are infinitely stronger than Ren. To further back this argument, in the Prequels it took a Padawan almost 15-20 years of their life to attain the rank of Jedi Knight and that was under the proper tutelage of a Jedi Master. Rey has never been trained in the Force/Jedi Arts or she would have known that A. Luke Skywalker was not a myth. B. The Jedi/Sith were real. So, for Rey to just pick up a lightsaber and duel someone as strong as Kylo Ren was in the Force and defeat him soundly is completely absurd, yet it happened. If Padawans are that strong that they can take on trained Dark Jedi and defeat them, then the younglings in the Council chamber should have been able to overpower Darth Vader during Operation Knightfall. The younglings were trained by Yoda himself. See? Something isn't making sense here and this sequel trilogy may have already fallen on its' face. There are more issues, but these are my three main "unforgivables". The Prequels had their flaws, but to me, they were superior in their scope and honored the originals more than this film did, instead of trying to rewrite the lore.

Touche. LOL. Jar Jar aside, the Prequels served their purpose, which was to expand the Star Wars Universe and show us how things were before the Dark Times, before the Empire, as Obi-Wan so aptly described it in A New Hope. How many of us remember hearing Luke asking Kenobi about the Clone Wars and not being just a little bit curious as to how that played out? To be able to see the civilization that was destroyed by the Empire.....

Disney Canon? You mean: - Episodes I-III - Episodes IV-VI - TCW - Rebels Vader was strongest when he attacked Kenobi on Mustafar. When he was put into the iron suit, he lost a significant amount of power over the Force. That was why when Vader screams NOOOOOOOO at the end of Sith, Palpatine smiled. He destroyed everything in the room with the Force except Palpatine/Sidious. You can tell that he wanted to kill Sidious, but could not. He could not focus the Force as he once did. When we meet him again in IV, he and Kenobi were weak old men, out of practice in their respective arts. It didn't help that he was part cyborg, and those body parts had no connection of the Force, which is why in Empire he used his mind to throw things at Luke instead of hand gestures as he had done in the Prequels.

Crazy idea here, but does anyone else see a significant similarity between this image and Sidious? Wonder if he knew about essence transfer after all......

This is one thing the Prequels actually got right. Shame.

Okay, but wielding a metal staff is different than wielding a lightsaber. They would be handled differently. Again, lets look to the fight on the bridge of the Invincible Hand during the opening of Revenge of the Sith. Obi Wan vs. Grievous' Magnaguards with their staffs. The Magnaguards were no match for the Jedi Master. Sure, they were droids, but they were deadly bodyguards for the Cyborg General. Also, to take this another step further, use of a Saberstaff(double bladed saber) requires even MORE training than the use of a single bladed saber. See Darth Maul vs. Kenobi/Jinn in TPM or the Return trailer for this game(Satele/ Kao Cen Darach vs. Malgus/Vindican for demonstrations in skill required for saberstaff use. As far as the Force goes, Rey may inherently be stronger in the Force than Ren, but without training, how can she fight him? I guess what I'm trying to say is without proper training in the Jedi arts, how can she fight someone that is self taught(which helps to explain Ren's fall to the DS)? Example: Luke was strong as well as a Padawan, so why didn't he rush in with the saber Kenobi gave him and crush Lord Vader(who was weaker than in his Jedi days) instead of watching Kenobi sacrifice himself? Why wasn't Luke able to crush Vader on Bespin after being partially trained in the Jedi arts by Yoda? You see? Something isn't adding up here....

Suddenly the Prequels don't look so bad, eh? I like The Force Awakens, but I have a one major issue that is bothering me: 1. Rey's sudden ability to pick up a lightsaber and do battle with someone used to wielding one. I'm calling BS on this one. Even IF she had been trained in the Jedi Arts by Master Skywalker, a number of years passed during which time her skills would have become rusty. Lightsabers are not weapons that can just be picked up "on the fly" and used. They require years of training because they can be a deadly to the user as the opponent they are facing. Don't get me started on Finn and the saber cause he has no visible connection to the Force at all. They are absolutely devastating in the hands of a Force Sensitive vs. a sentient with no Force Sensitivity. Case in point: Obi Wan Kenobi vs. General Grievous in ROTS. Even though Grievous had no less than 4 lightsabers against Kenobi, the Jedi Master was able to overpower his opponent and disarm him twice prior to slamming him with the Force itself. Why? Because of Kenobi's strength in the Force, saber skills and being the best duelist in the Order. Rey would not possess such strength, at least not at this point. Also, it took Luke 3 years of training in Jedi basics to even confront and defeat his father, and he was STILL no match for Darth Sidious. In the Jedi Order of the Prequels it took 15-20 years of training in the Jedi arts to even become a Jedi Knight. How can Rey just suddenly do what she does? I realize that J.J. Abrams said that the Force is tied to your personal faith, belief and spirituality and that apparently you can just "turn it on" whenever you feel the need to. This is NOT how the Force works at all, and no, it doesnt matter if you believe in the spirituality of the "Mystical Energy Field" or the scientific aspect of the Midichlorians, the Force is the Force. Period.

because it breeds stupidity and then some douche will spoil it.

Might want to put your post in spoiler tags, just fyi.

I alluded to this in my previous post above. Yes, the Force is present in all living things. I seriously doubt you will find a Star Wars fan out there who will dispute that. Where there is going to be an issue is where Abrams mentions: Being strong with the force didn’t mean something scientific, it meant something spiritual. It meant someone who could believe, someone who could reach down to the depths of your feelings and follow this primal energy that was flowing through all of us. I mean, thats what was said in that first film! Correct me I'm wrong, but it sounds to me like Abrams is trying to infer that anyone can be a Jedi if they reached down into their faith and tap the power. This frightens me because, to me, the Force was a "mystical" energy field, as Obi Wan Kenobi so aptly put it in A New Hope. It still retained a large part of its mysticism in the Prequels, but obviously science had advanced enough to allow the detection of the Force at the cellular or microbiological level via the Midichlorians. This gave the Jedi a better method by which to determine a person's Force Affinity and that's all. The truth remains, however, that the Jedi brought those who tested positive for Force Sensitivity into their order meant that they could potentially be trained as Jedi. I'm not saying that the Force doesn't exist in everyone. It does, but Midichlorians or not, if you're not sensitive to the Force, you cannot feel the Force and you cannot be trained to use it. It seems that Abrams is trying to change that. Even after they tested his blood for a Midichlorian level in the Phantom Menace, Anakin was still tested before the Jedi High Council for his Force Sensitivity. This leads me to believe that the Jedi used the blood test as only a basis for determining whether or not to bring a sentient to Coruscant for further Force Sensitivity testing prior to possibly training them as a Jedi. To assume that it's simply a matter of belief to determine a sentient being's ability to control the Force is ludicrous. In my opinion, to proceed with the idea that one just needs to believe in the Force to control it would destroy the existing canon in both the OT and PT, to say nothing of the EU(which isnt canon).

Here is the link

I seriously hope that J.J. Abrams isn't serious on what he said about the Force in a recent interview: Now I'm worried about The Force Awakens.......

It doesn't? Last time I checked, when gear had Expertise in it, the other stats were lowered compared to the PVE equivalent piece.

There is an official map out now that details the planets in this movie and ones from the past. Unfortunately many of the Prequel planets and some of the Originals are not on this map, which is weird. Here is the map.

I have another theory, this one surrounds the true identity of Supreme Commander Snoke. It is NOT Darth Plagueis.

But in 16m raids, you can't ask people to carry others, especially now in 4.0.

SNV and TFB SM, maybe. No way you'll survive HM with pvp gear. Sorry, but that's the truth.

^^This. This SO much. Having said that, I understand the point of view of those complaining about people having pvp gear in pve endgame content also. Pvp gear contains a stat called Expertise, which I am sure you are aware of. Now, in the past, Expertise took the place of your primary stat. I think, with the exception of tanks, it takes the place of Mastery post 4.0. Because of this, your numbers will be down, and with the retooled ops, this can present an issue where you can literally cause the raid to hit a brick wall. Most Ops bosses require a certain amount of dps in order to pass it prior to boss enrage or raid wipe. Bolster will only grant you the numbers that you require. If you are not good with rotation, you will fail. Bolster can't help that. Case in point: Dread Master Styrak HM in SNV. When the wall of ghosts appear, the raid team has roughly 10-15 seconds to burn the boss so that the cast breaks. It is a team dps effort and if the dps aren't all providing the same numbers, the raid will wipe. The bolster will NOT help you there. Your rotation and skill with your toon will. Same applies to tanks and healers. If your threat numbers aren't there, the dps in your group WILL pull aggro off of you. Good tanks are able to hold threat WITHOUT taunts, and that's because they understand their class, spec and rotation. DPS and Heals also need to understand their class, specs, and rotations cause gear is important, but a secondary concern. Another example is Sword Squadron in TOS HM. Both walkers have to be burned evenly and should be within the 5-10% mark when the group has the final bomb ready. Once one of the walkers falls, you have 5 SECONDS to down the other one before it enrages and kills everyone. The dps in the group needs to be consistent and all be at a similar number level(e.g., 3000) or you will not make it. You might be able to skate by in 8m GF bolster mode, but 16m in pvp gear will chew you up and spit you out.

Touche. However, it doesn't diminish the truth that most stormtroopers are lousy shots.

Vents? Exhaust ports? On a saber? You do know that a saber's beam has to be focused, right? Even if there are no side emitters, there has to be something focusing the smaller crossguards....a set of mirrors perhaps? However a set of mirrors wouldnt work either because the primary beam would then be reflected through the sides and would no longer be channelled via the apeture/primary emitter. Regardless they have to be focused via something OTHER than the primary emitter, and that can be destroyed. Case in point: Darth Maul's saberstaff. Twin emitters, one on each side. Kenobi sliced through and destroyed one.

There is a pretty good chance that Captain Phasma is a clone of some sort. Or perhaps a large majority of the new Troopers are cloned from her. At least the clones could aim, shoot and hit their targets in the prequels. Can't say that about the Stormies in the OT. If I'm not mistaken, at some point, we are taken back to Yavin 4. This is the same Yavin 4 crawling with Massassi warriors. It is also the same Yavin 4 that is the final resting place of the Sith Lord, Naga Sadow, or is it his final resting place? Sadow is the whole reason this war against the Jedi and Republic started, so wouldn't it be cool if Ren and company are trying to locate this guy, open his tomb(which I believe was alluded to way back when they started production on this film), and resurrect him in order to revive the Sith Order. Ren could learn the DS through Sadow, even IF he doesnt return to a body.

Reposting my previous post in this thread so as to bring you up to speed: Now we have the trailer released today from Disney Japan which includes Kylo Ren saying the following, "I will fulfill OUR destiny. I will finish what YOU started." I don't know about you guys, but Kylo saying OUR destiny sounds like he and Vader are on the same level. I smell a clone. Seems like my theory may just have gained some credibility.