So we start off the movie and you see the classic Lucasfilm thing, its always sad not seeing the 20th century FOX thing but oh well. right off the bat, it shows the classic "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." but instead of the triumphant, known and loved theme music and intro crawl, it just goes right into a movie. I think this reflects how this is the unsung story of the ones who made episode 4 possible. This intro tells the backstory of Jin Urso (spelling might not be correct.) after a little while, it does show the Title of Rouge One. let me now skip ahead.
At one point the team visits a planet and the camera zooms out and you see a rock formation shaped like an old man with a beard and hood on his side. I wondered what this could be? why would they take the time to put such emphasis on it? it looked similar to Ben Kenobi/old Obi-Wan or Old Luke from episode 7.
to be honest, I didn't find the story entirely engaging until they introduced the Death Star. In the movie, they reveal that the Death Star's super laser is powered by Kyber crystals. For this of you who dont know, Kyber crystals are what focuses the beam in a lightsaber and makes it functional. At the time, Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine had no part in the Super Laser portion of the Death Star, that was the project of Orson Krenik, a Imperial officer who was the rival of Grand Moff Tarkin who was in the movie! Some of you may have heard of the Plageus theory in episode 7. I encourage you to read up on it before you continue. So going back to the Kyber crystals, if you think about it, the Death Star super laser is really just a giant Lightsaber. In this case, there had to have been someone besides Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine to assist in building the laser. someone Force sensitive and powerful who had been there the whole time. If the Plagues theory is true, I would say that this is Plageus.
This is the extent of the theorizing that I will go into right now because I want to leave some for you all and my fingers hurt. now I'll tell you of my favorite moment in the movie.
-the ending sequence.-
the ending scenes show the rebel fleet being destroyed by Darth Vader's Star Destroyer. Jin and the team have just sent the Death Star plans to the rebels and now it is a frantic rush to get them away from the Empire. it shows the Rebel troopers receiving the message as their ship is being boarded. a group of them escorts the carrier to the escape pod that is the Tantive 4. they attempt to enter but the door is jammed and there is only a small crack where they could communicate with those on the other side. they are trying to get the door open at first. then Darth Vader shows up. The Rebel troopers are trapped between a jammed door and Darth Vader. knowing thats its no use, they begin firing at him. just to hold him off. at one point the carrier is panicking, he desperately wants to escape. at one point as Darth Vader approaches him, he realizes, "I'm not getting out of here alive, I can either prevent death a little longer or sacrifice myself for the sake of the Galaxy." his cries change from "Help" to "Just take this!" he says as he hands off the plans to a person on the other side. Just as Vader kills him and opens the door, the new carrier jumps onto the Tantive 4 and takes off leading to a short scene with Princess Leia. this scene is so important in so many ways. it gives Darth Vader a darker side (Pun intended). it shows how close the rebels came to losing the plans. you cannot help but be touched by the heroic sacrifices of all the characters in the movie. As you will see if you watch the movie, most everyone who goes into battle, dies. the movie is full of heroic sacrifice and every one of them died an honorable death doing something that they believed in. this movie puts episode 4 in a whole new perspective as the movie literally leads right up to A New Hope. in fact, in the end of the movie a rebel asks Princess Leia what the rebels sent them and she answers: "They have given us Hope."
the movie is also chock full of references and characters from episode 4. also the Dark Saber, first seen in the Clone wars tv show, is mentioned.
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