It's a Trap! -- Official Star Wars spoiler space

Okay with the releases of lore books and such turns out the planet Starkiller Base blew up wasn't Chandrila after all - it was Hosnian Prime.

Apparently, the New Republic rotates the location of the Galactic Senate between planets, and that planet was just unfortunate enough to be the one the Senate was on at the time.

I feel like Abrams wanted to blow up Coruscant - both because the planet was the embodiment of what he didn't want in his movie (very consciously set on the 'frontier', as he's said, and away from the 'middle-aged' concerns of the prelogy) and also because as Star Trek fans well know he's more than willing to detonate a well known planet for effect - but Abrams was presumably talked out of it by The Powers That Be who may want Coruscant around in the event they want to use a spectacularly huge city planet at some point in the future.

I think there's two reasons they didn't go with Luke's green saber.

Firstly, he didn't lose that. For all we know, Luke still has it on him - if we learned he didn't and it was left for some unexplained reason for someone else to pick up, the subtext would be he'd left it behind, which would make the final scene of the movie the most awkward regifting imaginable.

Secondly, the blue saber has more history. It wasn't just Luke's saber; it was his father's before him. It was the one Alec Guinness handed over in 1977. If it becomes Rey's, it will have been the weapon of three generations of (probably) Skywalkers - and like the original trilogy, probably one she wields until she crafts her own lightsaber.

So, forgive me if this has been discussed behind spoiler text elsewhere, but is this all part of setting up Rey to be Luke's daughter? They very pointedly set it up as being in the Skywalker family and that it "called to her". Also there were two scenes where peripheral characters thought Rey was significant, but then cut away before explaining what that was.
Of course this could all be a setup making us be led to believe Rey is Luke's daughter but then have it be some other (probably dumber) twist.

I assumed the movie had all but said she was his daughter to the point I was later surprised people weren't sure. (The off-the-wall theory she's somehow Kenobi's spawn is interesting, as two of the voices she hears when she picks up the lightsaber are Ewan McGregor - who recorded new lines for the bit - and Alec Guinness - who had a line he'd said altered by sound nerds to make it sound like he was saying "Rey.")


Another wild theory is that not only is Mara Jade re-canonized as Rey's mother, Felicity Jones is playing her in Rogue One.

Quick note on Anakin's lightsaber - The Thrawn novels established that it (along with Luke's severed hand) were found on Bespin.

Obviously the rest of this story is Legends now (thank God for that at least, the whole "clone of Luke named Luuke" was one of the weakest parts of the Thrawn trilogy), but again, there's a precedent.

As far as Rey being the daughter of Luke, of course it is a strong possibility. It is the likely outcome, but I hope it isn't. That is just dumb to basically pull the same "twist"(I use twist loosely, because was anyone really surprised at Kylo Ben?) two movies in a row. If she was his daughter then they should have just gotten it out of the way in this film. Why can't Rey just be the damned chosen one all over again, without being blood related?

Also, BEN IS SUCH A DUMB NAME, IT WASN'T EVEN THE REAL FUCKING NAME OF OBI-WAN. YOUR SON ISN'T NAMED AFTER A POWERFUL JEDI, BUT SOME RANDOM OLD SAND HOBO.

My guesses at this point on Snoke:

1. He may be one of the Emperor's advisers we briefly saw in Jedi, or someone else from that cadre. They were never really explained in-canon, but there's every possibility that they were force-sensitive.

2. He may be an apprentice being trained by Palpatine (or, much less likely, Vader) when the Empire fell, who stepped in on his own. He could also be a pre-Vader apprentice who failed Palpatine and was left for dead but survived.

3. He's actually the student who turned on Luke's other pupils. Ren was one of the other pupils and survived because he sided with Snoke. The main problem there is that it means the First Order is only about 15 years old. Also, it means that Snoke is much younger than he looks, and that Luke probably messed him up. If this is the case, Rey is probably the only other surviving student, either stashed by Snoke as a backup plan in case he lost Ren, or stashed by Luke when he went into hiding. She may or may not be a Skywalker; she could also be Snoke's daughter.

4. He's a pre-Palpatine Sith who's been biding his time for decades, maybe centuries.

5. He's a surviving Jedi who turned bad at some point; he might even be one we've seen before.

I doubt that, because both RotS and the EU stuff confirmed that Plagueis was killed, and Disney seems more likely to keep stuff related to the Prequels and the Clone Wars era as canon.

Has been confirmed that Snoke is for sure a force user? I think I would rather him be someone who has knowledge of the force, but he isn't actually force sensitive, that would make for an interesting dynamic. Also, if he is as big as he is without being powered by the force, he is still a formidable opponent in a fight. Then again I also was hoping Kylo Ren was really just a no name who never had any training in the force and everything was self taught, but that was all based off his lightsaber being crudely made.

Oh, I forgot to comment about the CG. The CG was really damn good in my opinion. But after watching the original trilogy in the last few weeks, I just strongly prefer the use of models for the space scenes and battles. I know you can't do everything with models that CG can do, but something about the models just gives it a more lifelike feeling.

A really weird idea that just occurred to me (not that I think it's true): What if Snoke is actually Anakin's father? That would give him an interest in Luke, Ren, and possibly Rey (depending on Rey's parentage). I don't think that's case, but that's just about the only reveal that wouldn't be at least a little anti-climactic. Granted, I'm not sure "stupid" is better.

Given Palpatine was almost Luke's father (note Plagueis' 'life making' force abilities apparently Palpy was to use them) this doesn't seem impossible to me.

But I just feel like Snoke isn't someone who will be explained with reference to the prequel trilogy - but I guess we'll see.

Rey doesn't look like she's in her thirties, though, and wouldn't she have to be that old to be Obi-Wan's kid barring some stupid twist?

And the main reason I'd kind of hope Rey isn't Luke's daughter is that this would be such a telegraphed twist that everyone is going to be anticipating for the next two years or whatever that nobody's going to find it the least bit surprising, especially if Abrams is trying to set it up to somehow mirror the reveal that Vader was Luke's father in Episode V.