Just saw a gifset of the scene in TFA right before Rey, Finn and Han enter Maz’s place and Han says ‘not to stare’.
And the thing is, when we go in? It looks like any of the bar/club scenes we’ve gotten in the movies (just, you know, not colourful) – it’s a place full of beings that live in the galaxy. So why would either Rey or Finn have a reason to stare? Rey has met aliens before. Finn, possibly not, depending on the FO’s attitude and the fact that we don’t see a single alien anywhere on Starkiller or similar.
It’s such a throwaway scene but, what is there to stare at? Why is Han saying this, as if the scene in Maz’s is somehow unusual? What’s the only thing in there that’d make it a spectacle worth staring at?
The aliens.
Despite the fact that the non-humans undoubtedly outnumber humans in the GFFA, in this scene they’re made into a macabre spectacle that is not to be stared at.
Look, I know this is a callback to the ANH scene where Obi-Wan says to Luke to be careful, that the cantina can be “a little rough”. But… that’s the difference, isn’t it? He says “it can be a little rough”, describing the character of the clientele and how they might act, not “you shouldn’t stare” (why would Luke stare, anyway? Sure, he hasn’t seen most of these aliens, so clearly he looks, but he’s still seen aliens before).
The scene before they enter Maz’s turns it around to describing the look of the place, not the quality of the clientele, the advice becomes “don’t stare at the weird” not “be careful, they’re all criminals/whatever in here”.
As if aliens in the GFFA is something weird, and not everyday.
@skywalker-saga: #an excellent point!#i know they wanted to copy the cantina scene from anh#but it’s like they didn’t quite get what was going on in that anh scene#it’s not surprising of course#the
whole tfa seems like it was made by someone who wants to copy the form
of the ot but who doesn’t understand the substance of it#but it’s still disappointing#aliens are not weirdos and freaks in the sw universe#they’re normal sentient beings in the galaxy just like humans#and it’s really strange that the disney movies forget this#of course the aliens look weird to us humans#but they’re not weird to the sw characters#and actually i think part of the charm of the lucas movies is that#the characters react to all kinds of weird and wondrous (from our perspective) things as if they’re completely normal#of course your friend and co-pilot is a walking carpet#of course your friend goes to a swamp to get magic lessons from a green troll#it feels like you get to be part of this weird wonderful galaxy far far away#and when characters react to things that should be normal to them as if they’re as weird to them as they would be to us#you really lose that charm