Leia’s called General, not Princess these days, and she’s back to planning strategies and inspiring troops when she could be, one would think, sitting somewhere safe eating Nabooian bonbons. Han and Chewbacca work to help the Resistance at every turn of the galactic arm. We also see many familiar faces performing at their self-sacrificial best. This young lady might turn out to be the sort of savior the Resistance could really use. Once she and Finn join forces (because you knew they would), she shows herself to be at least as brave and resourceful as he is. But despite the pressure to sell the thing for parts, she refuses, even beating away folks who would take the droid by force. Pretty much everyone on Jakku lives hand to mouth the very same way, which makes an actual running contraption like BB-8 incredibly valuable. She subsists by selling the semi-usable parts she finds on crashed space cruisers. BB-8 eventually finds himself in the company of a Jakku scavenger named Rey.

And his bravery helps save, perhaps, a good chunk of the galaxy. Even though his thoughts sometimes stray to self-preservation (which makes him a bit more like you and me), he proves time and again that he’s no coward. The next he’s risking his neck for near-strangers and a cause he’s been literally raised to war against. One minute, he’s refusing to kill innocent civilians. That Stormtrooper-Finn, he comes to be called-takes a step away from his dark masters in that moment, and it’s a step that proves irreversible. Why? Well, the Dark Side is just like that.īut one helmeted Stormtrooper, aiming his blaster at the innocent men and women in front of him, can’t quite seem to pull the trigger. Meanwhile, Ren, showing just how much he aspires to be like Darth, decides to slaughter everyone in the village. The droid rolls into the desert with his precious cargo, hoping he might come upon a little help before Ren finds him and has him scrapped for parts. Ren and his assorted Stormtroopers are hard on his heels, and Poe only has time to pack the info away in the bowels of his trusty droid, BB-8, before he’s captured. Dashing Resistance pilot Poe Dameron gets to that treasure first, but just barely. On Jakku, a backwater planet now only valued as an orbiting salvage yard, both the Resistance and the Order hear rumors of a map that might lead to Luke. And, indeed, the Order is terrified that Luke Skywalker-who disappeared ages ago-could return and teach a new collection of Jedi the fine art of Forceful opposition. A resurgent Republic is none too pleased with the Order’s incursions. (Or boiled it, or whatever the Dark Side thinks is the most appropriate use for water.)īut there are plenty of folks who’d rather not see the First Order sweep through the galaxy like the Empire’s second coming.

And while it doesn’t have Darth Vader to choke wayward generals anymore, it does have a guy named Kylo Ren-a young, passionate Sith acolyte who thinks Vader walked on water.

It can still build and fly TIE fighters and massive destroyers as well as anyone, of course. Instead of constructing all those flimsy Death Stars, it’s decided to retrofit a whole planet into the most fearsome of weapons. While not yet the galactic power that Emperor Palpatine’s old outfit was, this regime has dreams, man. Some 30 years after Episode VI, it’s using the form of the First Order, an Empire wannabe with a darker, vaguely more cultish sheen. But the Dark Side is still in fine feather.

Force awakens