We saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi for a second time a while back, mainly because a large group of friends was going and we had most of the theater to ourselves, so it was sort of like a private screening. During my re-watching, I spotted a number of things that I'd missed the first time, but one in particular stood out…
Note: The remainder of this post is hidden behind a spoiler-hiding plug-in, as the subject being discussed is a major—really major—plot spoiler. This should keep it disguised both here on the site, and in the RSS feed. However, commenters may not disguise their comments, which means you may not want to scroll down at all if you haven't seen the movie yet.
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When we first saw ST:TLJ, I couldn't understand the focus on the desert salt on Crait, where the final battle takes place. We're shown that the salt turns red under pressure, whether from footprints or speeding vehicles' daggers. On first viewing, I though that this was interesting, but was probably done just to make the battle shots more visually interesting, and to give a "field of blood" appearance to the battle area.
And while those things do matter, I think they're secondary to the main purpose of the "blood salt:" To let you know that Luke is not really there for his battle. Watch carefully, and you'll see that Luke doesn't leave footprints as he walks out to battle, nor as he fights Kylo Ren in the requisite lightsaber duel. Instead, he's projecting his presence via the Force.
I'm sure this was revealed in numerous spots on the internet, but I hadn't read any spoilers (even after seeing the movie), so it was a neat surprise on my second viewing.
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I did notice that, that is one of those things that show a remarkable attention to detail in the movie. Did you notice the dice were in old (Episode IV) Millennium Falcon cockpit shots all along?
Also, at first I wondered why [spoiler]when Kylo lunged at Luke, in the very next scene they were something like 12-15 feet apart. It made for good cinema (widescreen) but also a clue that there was something unusual going on.[/spoiler]
Drat, I don't think my ROT13 worked. :( Feel free to delete it or edit it if you want.
Rob Griffiths
Note: If you're reading this now, things have changed as I stopped using the ROT13 plug-in (it was flooding a database table with millions of entries). The post (including how-to-hide spoiler instructions) and comments have been updated for the new method.
No no, it worked great! (in my Vienna newsreader that uses WebKit.)
Rob Griffiths
It didn't work at first, as I provided incorrect instructions. I edited the comment (and the instructions), so now it works.
-rob.
Ed Mechem
Rot13 text can't be decided on iPhone ?
Ed Mechem
Ahem. Decoded.
Rob Griffiths
Good catch—turns out you can't "double tap" on an iPhone. I changed the setting to "single click," and now, in testing on my iPad, it seems to be working. Please let me know if it works for you.
-rob.
Ed Mechem
All fixed! Thanks, Rob ???
Ed Mechem
Small aside: kinda weird that emoji get turned into question marks. Ideally they'd come thru OK; if that's for some reason less than feasible... maybe some other glyph. Question marks can look kinda confusing...
BTW what a nice little feature, that [spoiler]rot13 can be embedded within a post like this in the middle of [/spoiler] otherwise normal text :)
I did notice that, that is one of those things that show a remarkable attention to detail in the movie. Did you notice the dice were in old (Episode IV) Millennium Falcon cockpit shots all along?
Also, at first I wondered why [spoiler]when Kylo lunged at Luke, in the very next scene they were something like 12-15 feet apart. It made for good cinema (widescreen) but also a clue that there was something unusual going on.[/spoiler]
Drat, I don't think my ROT13 worked. :( Feel free to delete it or edit it if you want.
Note: If you're reading this now, things have changed as I stopped using the ROT13 plug-in (it was flooding a database table with millions of entries). The post (including how-to-hide spoiler instructions) and comments have been updated for the new method.
-rob.
No no, it worked great! (in my Vienna newsreader that uses WebKit.)
It didn't work at first, as I provided incorrect instructions. I edited the comment (and the instructions), so now it works.
-rob.
Rot13 text can't be decided on iPhone ?
Ahem. Decoded.
Good catch—turns out you can't "double tap" on an iPhone. I changed the setting to "single click," and now, in testing on my iPad, it seems to be working. Please let me know if it works for you.
-rob.
All fixed! Thanks, Rob ???
Small aside: kinda weird that emoji get turned into question marks. Ideally they'd come thru OK; if that's for some reason less than feasible... maybe some other glyph. Question marks can look kinda confusing...
BTW what a nice little feature, that [spoiler]rot13 can be embedded within a post like this in the middle of [/spoiler] otherwise normal text :)
For extra security, I use quadruple-rot13.
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