8 Things Everybody Missed In Star Wars: The Force Awakens

4. The Opening Actually Endorses The Prequels

Many have taken the first line of The Force Awakens, "This will begin to make things right", as a little bit of a meta jab at the prequels; The Force Awakens is not just continuing the Star Wars story, but trying to win back an entire generation disenfranchised with Episodes I-III, and this allegedly shows the films directly acknowledging that. There has been a distinct lack of prequel focus on Disney's part since their acquisition of Lucasfilm (even going as far as cancelling The Clone Wars and replacing it with the original trilogy-era Rebels), so it is hard to believe this isn't a purposeful attempt to distance the franchise from the much reviled entries. However, getting hung up on that first part of the line misses the importance of what Tekka says next: "Without the Jedi there can be no balance in the Force." Now, it may not be bringing midi-chlorians back, but that's accepting a key part of the prequels mythology as integral to the ongoing story; those movies were dictated by the prophecy of the "Chosen One" who would "bring balance to the Force", which this is clearly alluding to. How that balance plays into the sequel trilogy isn't explored much in Episode VII, but you can bet the follow-up movies will lean more into it.