Before all the complaints start pouring in, here's some notes/disclaimers/context.
21:40 - 22:29 contained a music track that blocked the video in 8 countries including the US for copyright, so I just muted that section.
Yes, I intentionally edited several scenes to make them match better with their counterparts from other movies.
Yes, I am aware that many of the scenes I compare contain (sometimes drastically) different settings, contexts, character motivations, etc. but the fact is that the majority of them were intentionally done to mirror scenes from other Episodes either visually or structurally, regardless of whatever contrasts are present.
My main goal was to show the parallels that already exist between all three trilogies. I know there are a lot more parallels exclusively between TFA and the OT that I did not show. However, I did show some of the TFA-OT-exclusive parallels if I had seen them mentioned at most once or twice.
I intentionally left out several major parallels that I believe most people knew about already anyway- such as the trench runs, the Skywalker saber being Force-pulled from the snow, and Rey sneaking around like Obi-wan. The video is 30 minutes as it is, and I didn't want to spend too much time on what most casual viewers likely picked up on already anyway. That being said, I know I still included many obvious ones.
This is not a showcase of "lazy writing" or JJ being a "hack" or anything of the sort. The Force Awakens serves as a bridge between Lucas' Star Wars and Disney's new Star Wars. TFA had the unenviable task of living up to and respecting the Star Wars legacy while at the same time being inclusive enough to new and/or casual Star Wars viewers to show them what Star Wars is about, while setting up an entire new era of Star Wars, while being financially successful enough to justify and kickstart Disney's new 4.5 billion dollar Star Wars brand, and while paving the way for new characters and stories. With all of this considered, TFA did an outstanding job at meeting all of those goals. TFA reminds us of everywhere Star Wars has been (not just 1977 Star Wars- though it obviously does mirror the original most of all), and also sets the stage for all of the new Star Wars movies and stories that we will be getting. I do not believe that Episodes 8 and 9 will resemble 5 and 6 as closely as TFA did 4, for the very reason that TFA has already gotten everyone "caught up" with where Star Wars now stands as a whole. I believe the new movies will be more original, but will still contain allusions to other Episodes, just as every Episode has done up to now.
If you aren't familiar with it, http://www.starwarsringtheory.com/ is an incredible read, and shows just how impressive the structure of Star Wars is. TFA followed this structure by serving as the introduction to a new saga. Ignore the subtitle of the post- the prequels still suffered very bad direction, but they do give the original saga an incredible structure.
If you believe that the new Star Wars era didn't need TFA to serve as an introduction, then I will simply respect your opinion and leave it at that.
I am aware that the audio is really bad at some spots. TBH, I used a free 7-day trial of Premiere Pro to make this video. I had just enough time to finish putting in the video clips/transitions and syncing all of the visuals when my trial ran out, and I didn't have time to really tune any of the audio. I did the best I could in Audacity to clean up the audio, but I was stuck with what I had in the video when my Premiere Pro trial ran out, and had to work around it.
I am aware the video quality is rough at some spots. This is a result of having to put the video/audio together in a different (much worse) program after I finished the audio.
Yes, I know Han Solo wasn't actually being interrogated. The shot is just a visual allusion.
I couldn't find a good way to compare the Mandalorian flag on Maz' castle with a shot of the symbol from any other movie.
Yes, I know Rey never explicitly stated her intention of becoming a Jedi or using the Force. However, her attempt to perform a mind trick demonstrates that her motivations and intentions changed from the time that she said "I don't want anything to do with this." You can't do the exact thing you said you weren't going to do without some kind of a change, and the obvious change to the intention of using the Force and ultimately finding Luke lends itself nicely.
Yes, I believe Rey is Luke's daughter. Not everything needs to be a twist. The plot and her character development will advance in other ways. We still have yet to learn anything about her mother or how she ended up on Jakku- those will make her backstory emotionally engaging. I'll just point out that the main argument against this being true is the fact that it's obvious that it's true.
Yes, I believe Snoke = Plagueis.