User blog comment:DylanTBest/(SPOILERS) Defending The Force Awakens Part 1/@comment-17710663-20160122003927

Excellent comparison, although you never got to the Kylo/Vader part.

A New Hope and The Force Awakens are not similar by accident; it was done on purpose. Some of George Lucas' original vision for Star Wars was inspired by Eastern religions such as Buddhism that center around the concept of rebirth, which makes sense when you look at a lot of the franchise. Many of the same themes from the original trilogy are subtly planted into the prequels, and the same strategy was applied by Abrams and his creative team for the new film. The cycle of rebirth--and by consequence, the cycle of repeating events--is shown in many ways: evil organization being fought by rebels, heroes from desert planets, giant space weapons, people who change for the better (Finn and Han are more similar than people think).

Another concept of Buddhism is the concept that gave birth to Yoda: a clumsy, irritating creature who seems unimportant initially, but turns out to be full of wisdom. While this same theory is applied by those who are convinced Jar Jar Binks was a Sith Lord, it can also apply to Maz Kanata, a character I hope we get to learn more about and see more of as the sequel trilogy continues. Maz seems very crude and rough around the edges, but her interactions with Finn and Rey show a different side of her. The cycle of rebirth is brought back in with Maz, during the sequence where she examines Finn's eyes.

While, as you mentioned, The Force Awakens seems to many people to be "a rebrand of the first Star Wars film", it's so much more. Its story is more intricate, for one thing. A New Hope could be a standalone movie, when you think about it; the Empire seemed defeated. There was no reason to make The Empire Strikes Back (although I'm very glad they did). The same can't be said of The Force Awakens. The movie was written with the full intention of revealing more in the next two films, and everyone knew that. So it baffles me why people still complain that The Force Awakens didn't tell us hardly anything about the galaxy everything now operates in, other than the fact that Empire 2.0 and Rebellion 2.0 are butting heads again. It didn't detail Republic politics, or who Snoke really is, or why Captain Phasma is there, or why General Hux is so fond of angry speeches, or why every original trilogy character and their mother seems to know exactly who Rey is. It didn't need to, not when it's never been any secret that a whole trilogy's coming. Anyone who calls themselves a true Star Wars fan can enjoy this movie for what it is: a fine movie. So thank you for this blog post, man. It's addressing an important issue that this fan base needs to put to rest.