Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi

[eldaec]

On Snoke - while I don't care that this film, and almost certainly this trilogy isn't going to explain him, I'm definitely interested enough to watch a one shot film on the subject in the future.

I'm just not bothered that it didn't happen here, I'm not bothered if it never happens, and I rather like the fact that not every damn thing has a serious monologue explaining shit. I filled my boots on that in the prequels.

[eldaec]

Gonna be stubborn here. Lucas can say "balance" means "the destruction of the Sith" all he wants, but his own damn movie makes that obviously crap.

And more to the point, authors don't get to decide what their output means.

Especially not if they are George Lucas.

[Teleku]

Ok, been busy enjoying a holiday on a tropical island, and this thread moved fast.  I apologize for dredging up stuff that's been argued over already, but I feel I have to give some input back.  After this post, I'll try to just skim and briefly hit anything else that has come along, for everybodies sanity.

See, I also don't get this series of complaints, because they seem like lazy criticism, e.g., it's just rattling off epithets to describe imprecisely and generically a sensation of disliking the film.

I literally rattled off several very specific complaints about the writing and narrative choices.  Nothing imprecise, but I guess easy to ignore for you?  You didn't address any of them.  I mean, on the character backgrounds, I guess your fine with the vagueness, so sure, ignore that complaint.  But the others?

I get not liking that they didn't do with the characters what you wanted done, I get not liking the structure of the plot, but it's anything but lazy. It's essentially the opposite of lazy: it does unusual and provocative things with the characters. Lazy would have been, "Luke Skywalker does the grumpy Yoda thing, trains Rey to be an awesome Jedi in a quick montage, they fight Kylo Ren and then Snoke at the end and win; Poe Dameron has a brilliant desperate plan that against all the odds works and the Resistance escapes intact to save the day and Vice-Admiral Holdo admits Poe is a genius and also that she is falling in love with him". That's lazy writing.

See, I'm mostly on board with you on this.  The opening credits got me off to a bad mood to begin with because it basically said "WE ARE REDOING ESB EXACTLY".  Now, it ended up being fairly different, which is good.  But the different path they took I didn't particularly enjoy, though it has its strengths.  I actually am mostly ok with the Luke/Rei stuff, I just think it could have been handled better.  To the point I'm still torn on if the generic scenario you wrote above would have lead to a better movie or not, even if it was a lazy way out.

What's also lazy criticism is applying complaints to one film that would essentially indict every single one of them.

Does Obi-Wan tell Luke a whole bunch of things that he ought to tell him in ANH? Nope. "Unearned tension".

Not even slightly similar at all.  What valuable piece of information did he leave out that would have kept him from doing something important to the plot for no reason?  Not telling him Vader was his father makes perfect sense at the time.  Same with Yoda.  What information did either of those guys hold back that led to him needlessly doing something, except maybe stopping him from kissing his sister?[/quote]

Does it make any sense at all that this particular group of barely-competent fugitives should be able to sneak around the Death Star successfully (before Vader and Tarkin decide to put a tracker on the Falcon?) Not remotely.
Does a trash compactor as shown make any sense? Does the interior design of the Death Star make any sense?
Does the fact that the Death Star seems to only have about four to eight Tie Fighters total make any sense?
Why does the Empire not care about all the small fighters sneaking away from Hoth after the main transports have gotten away? Why not swarm the entire sector with Tie Fighters?
Does Yoda not telling Luke about his father prior to his father telling him make any sense? Why not get out in front of it? Unearned tension!
Does Yoda's method of oblique training in general make any sense?
Does a space worm make any sense? What's it eat, anyway? Why wouldn't Han know about such things?
How on earth does the implied time frame of Luke's time on Dagobah square with what's going on with the Falcon?
etc. None of these movies--and maybe no science-fantasy or science-fiction movie ever--really stands up if you're going to come at it with this kind of determination.

Holy shit who would even ask any of this?   You are reeeaching far.  I'm not talking about comic book guy geek level tearing apart a film and arguing over how many force ghost can dance on the head of a pin, which is what you are equating me to doing here.  I'm talking about this film literally saying an entire fleet of star destroyers and a super Death Star cannot penetrate the shields of a normal cruiser for reasons that fly in the face of every fleet battle we've ever seen.  For comparison, you'll notice that I did not bring up the crazy bomber run in the start of the film.  Fucking space B-52's that have to slowly fly over their target and drop, in zero gravity, their bombs?  Guess what, A OK!  Star Wars is WW2 in space, and that right here is completely constant with the story telling, even if when you look at it, its the dumbest thing ever (just like people having dog fights and shooting laser flack in space, all which is not actually possible).  I didn't even bat an eye at that, but the entire premise of the chase scene broke immersion very badly for me.  Same reason light speed kamakazi was cool but also somewhat immersion breaking.  Introducing real physics to Star Wars starts to make the entire premise fall apart.

Does that make sense?


Also, you're selling Vespasian short.  He was a cool dude!  

[Teleku]

But seriously Snoke is dead don't be ridiculous.

We've had two years of 'Rey is a Skywalker' and 'Finn is a jedi', lets not do that shit again.

I think it would be the most hilarious/amazing thing ever if JJ got back at RJ by undoing everything he did in this film.  Snoke IS Darth Plagious, and he's back!  Rei is actually a Skywalker after all!  Finn is a Jedi!  Fuck all of you alrlhaojdlfdldslslsf.....

Edit:  Oh, one other thing to add to the overall trend I've been seeing.  Lots of people talk about the performances of Luke, Leia, ect.  I just.... dont' see it.  Luke was the best of the old cast, but his acting was not that great overall (but manageable).  Leia in both TFA and this movie was terrible.  Like, she was slurring her words in both movies and sounded like she had a stroke.  Acting was flat out bad.  It made me feel genuinely bad that they had forced her out for this movie.  She really sounded like she should have just been resting and trying to take care of her health instead of doing this.  Harrison Ford sounded tired and bored in TFA, with none of the pop of his youthful self.  Honestly, I would have been totally fine if they had killed off the entire cast between trilogies or just gave them 1 minute cameos in the first movie.  Only Luke was needed for a big role in the new trilogy plot wise, and the actors all being so old and bad at acting hurt the films.

[Draegan]

One of the descriptions I liked for snoke was that he was just some random asshole who got powers after Vader died. Then schemed his way to evil power.

[HaemishM]

Leia in both TFA and this movie was terrible.  Like, she was slurring her words in both movies and sounded like she had a stroke.

I think most reports I've heard said that she basically might as well have had a stroke and was clearly struggling through her lines. She probably shouldn't have done it and if she'd been sucked out of the hole in the bridge and died instead of Mary Poppinsing her way back into the plot, I'd have been perfectly fine with that. I think it would have actually helped the story.

EDIT: As for Snoke being just some guy, I'd be fine with that too if we'd, you know, actually been given that. As it was, his quick death and lack of any real background just confused me as a viewer. Like, based on his part in the story ordering around all the First Order dudes and Kylo Ren, I'm supposed to be attached to his evilness but then he's just Mace Windu'ed out of the plot? WUT?

[Draegan]

You didn't have Tarkins back story in IV. Or Yodas in V.

[Samwise]

Or Boba Fett's, or Jabba's, or even Obi-Wan's beyond "he's a Jedi and he knew Luke's dad".

[HaemishM]

We had more than just "supreme leader of First Order." That's literally ALL we know about the character and yet he's a major driver of the plot.

Tarkin? He was not a major driver of the plot, he was dead after episode 4. Yoda, Jabba and Obi-Wan we got more information about even after their deaths. I'm not even talking about backstory so much as place in the goddamn world other than a one-line job title. It would be like sending Luke to find Yoda only to never find out that Yoda was a Jedi Master - why would he be sent to Yoda in the first place?

[MediumHigh]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mark-hamill-rips-role-apos-145123576.html

meanwhile when even the guy playing luke skywalker says you fucked up.

[Threash]

He bitched about the original series too, apparently Luke wouldn't have killed the wampa or some such.

[Surlyboi]

Jesus, you all are broken.

I liked the direction this took. Could Luke have been a bit less of a whiny, bitch? Totally. He's still a Skywalker though, so whiny bitch is baked in. Rey not being anyone is kind of the point of the Force. The Force doesn't give a shit what your name is. It's going to choose you to be its conduit or it isn't. Matter of fact, I think the Skywalkers were an aberration. A line created by manipulating the Force for less-than-pure ends. If anything, all of the shit coming out of this is the Force correcting that aberration. Was the pacing off? Sure. Were there things that could've been better? Absolutely. But this was a damn solid Star Wars flick.

[jgsugden]

Disney's original rough plan, after taking Lucas out, was that Episode 7 would focus on Han, 8 on Luke and 9 on Leia.  All three were originally going to be in all three, but the idea was to have only one of the old guard core characters front and center in each episode.  This changed a lot with Solo being killed for story reasons at the conclusion of 7, Luke not being included at all (really) in 7, and now with Fisher passing.  

There is a huge amount of information out there from official supporting materials.  For example, Snoke was not a Sith - the Sith ended with Vader.   He also, per some official materials, had an unnamed second apprentice (https://www.cbr.com/star-wars-8-snoke-second-apprentice/).  More will follow.  Perhaps these materials will let us know the things we're curious about - although I still think think that we'll soon get an announcement that the next animated series will be focused on Luke between episodes 6 and 7 like we saw Kenobi as the focus of Clone Wars. All the hints about the series have pointed to a story tied more closely to the main character storylines.

[eldaec]

Hamill's complaint as reported seems pretty daft. But I kind of suspect he has been taken out of context because (a) he likes talking about acting and star wars a lot so is easy to quote out of context and (b) he isn't usually so absolute.

I had no issue whatsoever with Luke being broken after evil dude stole his fucking nephew and broke the galaxy with him. OT Luke never came up against anything remotely like that. While I found myself hoping to see him go rogue1vader at the end - it was also obvious that it would be flat out wrong, what he actually did was way more satisfying.

I really liked the sabre battle - reminded me a lot of the Rebels Maul vs Obiwan duel. Both manage to carry the feeling that lightsabres are actually fucking dangerous, and transmit a lot of character in a few simple moves and reactions.

[eldaec]

I still think think that we'll soon get an announcement that the next animated series will be focused on Luke between episodes 6 and 7 like we saw Kenobi as the focus of Clone Wars. All the hints about the series have pointed to a story tied more closely to the main character storylines.

I would happily make space for that animated series on my dvr.

That is exactly the right way deal with nerd questions about Luke and Snoke without gumming up the films.

But I doubt they'll make Luke main character. More likely it would be 'adventures of random jedi trainees in Luke's academy'.

[MahrinSkel]

God damn it, if you're going to argue about the history and theology of space wizards with laser swords, spell "Canon" right.

--Dave

[Soln]

Did anyone catch Laura Dern say “ thank god”or “by god” near the end?  Pretty sure she did. That felt really odd.  Like the first time I’ve ever heard that in a SW film.

[Surlyboi]

It was, "godspeed". It was said by a few people. Did strike me as a little off.

Edited to put in the actual quote.

[Draegan]

We had more than just "supreme leader of First Order." That's literally ALL we know about the character and yet he's a major driver of the plot.

Tarkin? He was not a major driver of the plot, he was dead after episode 4. Yoda, Jabba and Obi-Wan we got more information about even after their deaths. I'm not even talking about backstory so much as place in the goddamn world other than a one-line job title. It would be like sending Luke to find Yoda only to never find out that Yoda was a Jedi Master - why would he be sent to Yoda in the first place?

We know he reached out and tainted kylo. We know he is feared etc. More info that palpatine.

Tarkin was more of a driver is 4 than snoke in 7.

I feel like this is a wow vs. new MMO debate about content in 2007.

[Khaldun]

I am really just not getting some of the complaints, yeah. I understand the issues with pacing and I understand why someone might not like the staging of the chase and dramatic situation of the fleet.

The idea that you have just got to have more background on Snoke is dumb. He's not a dramatic character in the sense that he's got an arc or any development. He's a thematic plot device, and by this time in the series, a familiar one.

In the end, even after six movies, you still have almost no background on Palpatine, and certainly none in the original trilogy. Even with the prequels, the only glimmering you get of his background before the events of TPM is a possibly-apocryphal story of his possible-Sith Master and a recognition of the depth of his planning for the overthrow of the Republic and the Jedi. How exactly he was found by his Sith master, why he found the Sith teachings appealing (and was not previously identified as Force-sensitive before being found by the Sith) is strictly EU stuff. It's never on-screen because it doesn't matter. He also is not a character whose dramatic arc matters--he also is a plot device, fundamentally.

[BobtheSomething]

I am really just not getting some of the complaints, yeah. I understand the issues with pacing and I understand why someone might not like the staging of the chase and dramatic situation of the fleet.

The idea that you have just got to have more background on Snoke is dumb. He's not a dramatic character in the sense that he's got an arc or any development. He's a thematic plot device, and by this time in the series, a familiar one.

In the end, even after six movies, you still have almost no background on Palpatine, and certainly none in the original trilogy. Even with the prequels, the only glimmering you get of his background before the events of TPM is a possibly-apocryphal story of his possible-Sith Master and a recognition of the depth of his planning for the overthrow of the Republic and the Jedi. How exactly he was found by his Sith master, why he found the Sith teachings appealing (and was not previously identified as Force-sensitive before being found by the Sith) is strictly EU stuff. It's never on-screen because it doesn't matter. He also is not a character whose dramatic arc matters--he also is a plot device, fundamentally.

So, you are ok with his treatment by this movie because it is right in this movie.  However, his presence has ramification on the entire franchise, not the least of which is how he could affect Luke, whose deviation from his arc over three films deserves a bit more fleshing out than "a wizard did it".  If you see the franchise as one whole story, then this particular chapter does not fit I. It so well, no matter how much you like it on its own.

Honestly, though, I don't see how you can not see the flaws in nearly every scene of the film.  Yeah, I liked it, too, but I can't pretend it's not deeply stupid.

[IainC]

Right, but in the OT, Palpatine is part of the starting conditions. Like I said earlier, there's an evil Empire and therefore an evil Emperor. Everything we need to know about Palpatine, we find out through context in ESB and RotJ. The situation with Snoke is different because we already have a setup from the end of the OT and he clearly doesn't fit into it. So there's a discontinuity. Nobody is asking for a 20 minute training montage showing how he came to power or a long monologue where he explains his backstory to the audience, just some contextual clues that establish who he is and why he's leading the First Order instead of some random former Imperial Grand Moff.

[Teleku]

Yeah, if this was a stand alone movie, it would be perfectly fine (like Vader and the emperor).  But these movies are in fact sequels.  Same reason the lack of story for Kylo bugs me.  In a vacuum, its fine.  But this is the son of Han and Leia, two characters we know a lot about, and who we know would be good parents.  So he basically walks into this trilogy with an established background already, and its a total light side good guy background.  Going dark side is pretty major, and its aggravating not to be given some context as to why.  Like, if in RotJ they just said Leia is dark side now and works for the empire.  Why do you care how it happened?  Enjoy the pew pew!

[MediumHigh]

the reason why there is no backstory to Ben Solo is because he is a EU character, EU meaning the expansed universe. His story line where Luke creates a new jedi order, it fails, and ben becomes a sith apprentice is straight from the EU. It was bait for the hardcore star wars fans, which is why ben solo was part of the marketing material before we even Rey or Finn. We're not told shit about his turn to the darkside because its a shot out to piece of fiction only hardcore fans know.

[Surlyboi]

How do we "know Han and Leia would be good parents"? Seriously? Their relationship was only really beginning at the end of Jedi and it got off to a really weird start. The fact that they were both kind of shit parents was fairly well established by the middle of TFA. Han was Han, a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants scoundrel that thought he could talk his way out of anything and Leia was very probably the helicopter mom that wanted her special son to "live up to his potential' The two parenting styles are very different and probably led to a lot of conflict. To just blanket throw out "we know they would be good parents" is no less ridiculous than you think parts of this film were.

[eldaec]

I completely understand why, as a bunch of star wars nerds, people can be grumpy that we have the OT story, and we have this story, but not the story in between.

I just don't feel it ruins this story.

[HaemishM]

I didn't say it "RUINS" the story, I'm saying that it makes the current story very disjointed especially when considered as part of a larger arc. It takes me right out of the story when I'm TOLD "Snoke had already turned Ben to the Dark Side" instead of being shown that. That's part of what makes narratives work or not - if in the middle of the movie, I'm asking "Wait, why did that happen" then you haven't given enough. Even in Star Wars, with main, major characters, it's not enough to just say "Oh he's Dark Side" and hand wave away any objections to it, especially when that revelation doesn't jibe with where we were at the end of the OT.

I think the difference between my enjoyment of TFA (which I watched again recently and felt it held up) and TLJ is that the story in TFA kept me going along without having to stop and ask questions. Part of that is because I expected those questions to be answered later and part of it was because I was invested enough in the PEW PEW that I didn't have to pause too long. The flow of the story in TLJ didn't do that. It constantly interrupted itself with slapstick humor that felt out of place and side quests that didn't make sense (or weren't explained well) in the context of the story. The whole galaxy wide, impulse-speed chase scene REALLY hurt this movie's flow because once you establish those sorts of stakes, you can't slow up or else you lose all dramatic tension. A car chase scene doesn't work if you spend 10 minutes of slow conversation having little to do with the car chase for every 2 minutes of chase. That's why I say the movie was a mess. Pieces of it as self-contained story beats were acceptable (though not ones I'd have chosen) but as a whole narrative it's just all over the goddamn map. A better editor or writer might have been able to put it together in a more coherent structure even maintaining every major part with only minor dialogue differences.

[Goumindong]

How do we "know Han and Leia would be good parents"? Seriously? Their relationship was only really beginning at the end of Jedi and it got off to a really weird start. The fact that they were both kind of shit parents was fairly well established by the middle of TFA. Han was Han, a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants scoundrel that thought he could talk his way out of anything and Leia was very probably the helicopter mom that wanted her special son to "live up to his potential' The two parenting styles are very different and probably led to a lot of conflict. To just blanket throw out "we know they would be good parents" is no less ridiculous than you think parts of this film were.

You know who make the best parents? Deadbeat dads who run away to be criminals and guerilla leaders who are more happy planning combat than working in a legislature. Both of which more than willing to give their son to a cult leader who has no experience training and only minimal experience being trained.

Snoke also does not need to be explained. He is a powerful dark side force user and that is all you need to know

[MediumHigh]

TFA was a good movie. It still remains horrible star wars. Its horrible star wars because the foundations TFA laid down are weak. Your building an entire new star wars franchise that suppose to jell with at least the cannon in the movies... only for every part of the "new" lore introduce to be utter trash. TFA was bad star wars because its bad for star wars. And the Last Jedi is proof of that concept, because everything many people noted was wrong with TFA was exacerbated by the Last Jedi. Its as if you have someone who makes one racist comment and instead of apologizing just starts saying the n word for 2 hours when confronted.

[Khaldun]

I do not get the thought that this movie is dumb. At least in terms of what it wants to do in changing much of what Star Wars fans think is going on in Star Wars, it's anything but dumb--it's thinking really hard. Much as I still do not get the charge of "lazy"--lazy to me means the people making a movie did the most obvious, most expected, most focus-group tested, paint-by-numbers things.

I get not liking the changes. I get not liking the structure of the plot. I do not get how any of it is either "dumb" or "lazy".

--------------


In ESB, you get ZERO background on the Emperor other than that he knows the Force and that Darth Vader calls him Master and that he has sensed Luke's growing mastery of the Force. (But evidently not sensed that Yoda is responsible, interestingly.) You don't know where he's from or what his deal is. You find out that Vader is indeed in armor and that he seems to be seriously injured or scarred underneath it. You don't find out why or what happened, nor will you in Return of the Jedi, either. You get virtually no background on Yoda other than that he was a legendary Jedi teacher. Where's he from? Where are the flashbacks about Yoda? Why is he alive but the rest of the Jedi dead?

You don't find out what Han Solo was smuggling for Jabba, or how long he'd been working for him. You don't find out how Han Solo and Chewbacca met (we still haven't, in canon). You don't find out exactly how Vader turned once you find out that he is in fact Anakin Skywalker. You don't find out much more about Palpatine's background in ROTJ, really. We never even have it explained what a "Sith" is in ROTJ and ESB. When we find out Leia is Luke's sister, we don't find out really why Luke was put on Tatooine (with Anakin's stepbrother, for god's sake) other than to "keep them safe from the Emperor". We *do* find out that Obi-Wan and Yoda lie a lot, though, not that the series ever really comes to grips with that.

[Goumindong]

TFA was a good movie. It still remains horrible star wars. Its horrible star wars because the foundations TFA laid down are weak. Your building an entire new star wars franchise that suppose to jell with at least the cannon in the movies... only for every part of the "new" lore introduce to be utter trash. TFA was bad star wars because its bad for star wars. And the Last Jedi is proof of that concept, because everything many people noted was wrong with TFA was exacerbated by the Last Jedi. Its as if you have someone who makes one racist comment and instead of apologizing just starts saying the n word for 2 hours when confronted.

No? There was no superweapon in TLJ. It wasn’t a retread beat for beat of Episode 5. It wasn’t paced too rapidly, with no appreciable downtime between action beats. There was a sense of time with traveling in hyperspace being fast but also not instantaneous. No on was seen as a Mary Sue*

The complaints I have seen boil down to “I don’t understand theme or voice in a movie”, “it was too slow”, “it was lazy”, Luke didn’t personally suck my cock in the theater”, “I want Star Wars physics to change from what they have been in literally every Star Wars movie ever”**

MovieBob has a good segment on why this needed to happen. And TLJ was amazing.

*note that this criticism of TFA was dumb as shit but I am including it to show just how dumb your comment is.

**not only is there gravity inside all of the non-rotating ships which would have the same effect on the bombs (which were magnetized l) as it would people but there are gravity bombs in space in ESB.

[Surlyboi]

Canon explanation of the bombs for the people needing an explanation.

The B/SF-17's intended purpose was to deliver a payload of 1,048 proton bombs on top of a target. The modular bombing magazine, called the "clip" by the bomber's crew, would drop the bombs through sequenced electromagnetic plates in the clip, which propelled the bombs to "drop" in microgravity environments. The bombs would then be drawn magnetically to their targets. The assembly could be programmed to drop specific sections of the payload in sequence, but the most common configuration was "deploy all.

[IainC]

In ESB, you get ZERO background on the Emperor other than that he knows the Force and that Darth Vader calls him Master and that he has sensed Luke's growing mastery of the Force. (But evidently not sensed that Yoda is responsible, interestingly.) You don't know where he's from or what his deal is. You find out that Vader is indeed in armor and that he seems to be seriously injured or scarred underneath it. You don't find out why or what happened, nor will you in Return of the Jedi, either. You get virtually no background on Yoda other than that he was a legendary Jedi teacher. Where's he from? Where are the flashbacks about Yoda? Why is he alive but the rest of the Jedi dead?

You don't find out what Han Solo was smuggling for Jabba, or how long he'd been working for him. You don't find out how Han Solo and Chewbacca met (we still haven't, in canon). You don't find out exactly how Vader turned once you find out that he is in fact Anakin Skywalker. You don't find out much more about Palpatine's background in ROTJ, really. We never even have it explained what a "Sith" is in ROTJ and ESB. When we find out Leia is Luke's sister, we don't find out really why Luke was put on Tatooine (with Anakin's stepbrother, for god's sake) other than to "keep them safe from the Emperor". We *do* find out that Obi-Wan and Yoda lie a lot, though, not that the series ever really comes to grips with that.

None of that extra detail is important to the continuity of the trilogy or the evolution of the story. You know who those characters are via context but there isn't a lot of exposition to explain why they are where they are. The stuff in ESB and RotJ establishing the Vader/Luke relationship is really all of it. And that's fine, because the stories aren't establishing a history, they are following the same characters through a single arc. Again though (for the third time), that isn't what is happening in TFA/TLJ. We are being shown a new scenario which very clearly builds off the ending of RotJ. We have most of the same characters, we have the First Order who are using the equipment and iconography of the Empire so there's very obviously a direct connection between what we are seeing now and what was happening then. Now, in this new continuity, there's a new character with an unusual set of abilities on the very top of the tree with no explanation of how or why. Like, nobody gives a shit what Phasma's backstory is, she's just an interchangable senior commander. Likewise Hux or any of the disposable mooks who get blown out of the sky by Poe. But we are given this enigma who doesn't fit in with what we understand the situation is. He's external to the old Empire (otherwise Palpatine and Vader would have known about him) and yet he inherits all of the remnants of it somehow? It's a safe bet that most of the other First Order senior brass are former Imperial commanders but this guy just walks in off the street and takes over in place of an existing Grand Moff.

[Threash]

Canon explanation of the bombs for the people needing an explanation.

The B/SF-17's intended purpose was to deliver a payload of 1,048 proton bombs on top of a target. The modular bombing magazine, called the "clip" by the bomber's crew, would drop the bombs through sequenced electromagnetic plates in the clip, which propelled the bombs to "drop" in microgravity environments. The bombs would then be drawn magnetically to their targets. The assembly could be programmed to drop specific sections of the payload in sequence, but the most common configuration was "deploy all.

Fuck that, the bombs dropped because its fucking Star Wars and thats how space battles fucking work.

[Khaldun]

"this guy walks in off the street". That's fine. Why do you need more than that? You didn't have more than that about how the Emperor became the Emperor, or how the Jedi became extinct, or how Yoda survived, yadda yadda yadda. The Emperor and Vader didn't know about Obi-Wan's survival, they didn't know about Luke and Leia, they didn't know about Yoda, in the currently valid canon, they didn't know about Darth Maul surviving (maybe because that seems so ridiculous). I think the list of things they didn't know about it only going to multiply.

So Snoke is one of the many things they didn't know about. Yay! I guarantee you that we'll get some kind of EU treatment of him eventually. You know everything you need to know about him in this movie: bad guy who has been corrupting Ben Solo for a while, who recognized that all the thumbsucking alt-right wannabee Imperial officers clustered in the Outer Rim needed an Emperor-substitute and grabbed his main chance. For all we know he's a Dark Side grifter who isn't nearly as strong as he pretends to be and that's why Kylo/Ben is able to sucker him. That's fine--he's not an actual character, he's a plot device. As was the Emperor, really.