#and i get to an extent that by the ot some of the remaining jedi like yoda have lost faith that he could return

[jebiknights]

Forever crazy to me when people write characters who have canonically (or semi-canonically in Legends) struggled with the Dark side brush Anakin off as a lost cause. Obviously in order to return to the Light you have to want to, I do get that and the characters are likely going to know that, too. But it's just so disingenuous to me when people have these characters be unforgiving and skeptical, ignoring that character's past and experiences. I'm not sure if it's just a lack of knowledge of the characters in question or if they just like using characters as Anti-Anakin/Vader mouthpieces but it really takes me out of a story.

[ionlymadethissoicouldleaveanask]

Star Wars Prequels Thoughts

Okay, as requested by @rainintheevening (or more accurately, as forced upon you all by myself), here are my thoughts on the Prequels.

Now I want to preface by saying this - I love Star Wars, I love all of the Star Wars films, and I am far from a Prequels hater. However, I think that there are a few things that could have been done differently to make the franchise as a whole better. This whole thing came up from my wish that Star Wars had been made so that you could watch from Episode I on and not miss anything, as opposed to the way that the Prequels we have are built on the shoulders of the OT. Anyhow.

The first major change that I would make is this: the movies would have focused on Obi-Wan Kenobi as the main character far above any other character. Anakin would have been a sidekick in the Obi-Wan story. We would have started and ended with Obi Kenobi.

TPM -

Phantom would almost entirely follow the plot that is already established. The big change, though, is that instead of Anakin Skywalker being a little junkyard rat from Tatooine, he is already a Jedi padawan. 

So here's the shot - at the start of the film, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his former padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, now a full-fledged Jedi knight, go to negotiate with the Trade Federation that has blockaded Naboo. Each of these Jedi has a padawan of his own - Jinn's is the young, brash, Anakin Skywalker. Kenobi's padawan is more mild-mannered and force-attuned. Let's call him Bob Dirtswimmer for the sake of clarity. Kenobi's fiery impulsiveness is played up to a big extent - he's brash, doesn't think things through before doing them, and he negotiates exclusively with his lightsaber. Jinn is more calm and level-headed. Their respective padawans both get along better with the other master, which causes some friction.

Like I said, the plot pretty well follows what already exists – the Trade Federation doesn’t want to comply, the Jedi are forced to ally with first Jar Jar, and rescue Queen Amidala. They escape the planet but are forced to land on the desert planet Tatooine, where they are befriended by a young moisture farmer named Owen. Owen hates Tatooine, hates moisture farming, and he hates how bored he is in life. All he wants is to escape the planet with his girlfriend Beru and become a pilot. While Kenobi and Jinn try to negotiate for parts to repair their ship, Anakin and Owen become fast friends, spurred on by their similar distaste for boredom and the ‘sedentary’ lifestyle that is being pushed on them by their respective mentors (Cliegg pushing Owen to join him as a moisture farmer, Qui-Gon pushing Anakin to be more mindful of the living Force instead of so action-oriented). Dirtswimmer tries to get along with them, but he feels excluded because he is far less inclined to join in on the action of things.

They eventually manage to secure the parts with the help of Owen. As repayment, they allow him and Beru to join them. He immediately and happily settles into the cockpit and gets some flying lessons from the Queen’s royal pilots. On the way to Coruscant to plead for Naboo’s case, we see Anakin begin to grow close to one of the queen’s handmaidens. Then we get the bit where Palpatine, the senator from Naboo, begins pushing Chancellor Valorum to raise an army to fight the Trade Federation’s unjust claims. Dirtswimmer remains on Coruscant to help Palpatine rally support for Naboo while the other Jedi return with the queen to retake the planet. Anakin and Owen fly together against the control ship because they are both skilled pilots, leaving Kenobi and Jinn to face off against Maul.

Now, since Qui-Gon is a bye-gone, Kenobi takes Anakin on as his second apprentice, teaching him at the same time as Dirtswimmer. At the end of the film, Palpatine talks to Dirtswimmer around Jinn’s funeral and mentions how disappointing it is that the Jedi with whom he really connected was now gone, leaving him to be the third wheel in the Obi-Ani Show.

AotC - We're going to get into some big changes that will be important, so keep track of this stuff.

Side note: Master Yoda is often referred to, but never seen. He is described as being the greatest warrior of the entire Jedi Order, but he has abandoned it because he believes that the Order has lost its way.

Again, we follow the same vague film plot - it begins with Naboo's new Junior Senator, Padme Amidala. She and Palpatine, the Senior Senator, are on Coruscant to debate the creation of a clone army for the republic. Palpatine represents the Nabooian populace that is in favor of the law - which is a significant portion, considering the Republic’s failure to assist them when they were being attacked years before - while Padme represents the minority who believe that such an act would be inhumane and lead to dictatorship. 

There have been many threats against anyone who opposes the law, so three Jedi are assigned to protect Amidala - Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Bob. There is a brief moment of happiness when they reunite, and Anakin and Padme almost immediately get going with the flirtation once again - something that Dirtswimmer sees is inappropriate, but Kenobi brushes off as unimportant. That night, there is an attempt on Amidala's life. The Jedi manage to protect the Senator and Anakin and Obi-Wan immediately set off after the would-be assassin while Dirtswimmer notices a second assassin following behind. Just as they capture the first accomplice, Dirtswimmer attacks the second - a Mandalorian. Mando and Dirtswimmer engage in a brief fight but Mando manages to knock Dirtswimmer off of him, hits the first accomplice with a poison dart, and escapes.

With this information, the trio of Jedi splits. Anakin is ordered to accompany Padme back to Naboo for her protection, Dirtswimmer is to work with Senator Palpatine to investigate who in the Senate is responsible for these attacks, and Obi-Wan is assigned to investigate the Mando alongside another Jedi Knight - Siri Tachi, with whom he clearly has history.

Padme is initially against the idea of leaving, but Palpatine manages to talk her into going for her protection and assures her that he will recall her before the vote takes place. On Naboo, Anakin and Padme get swept up in their whirlwind romance and whatnot. Owen and Beru accompany them with Owen as the pilot of their ship.

While they are doing that, Bob is pulled aside by our good 'ole boy Sheev. He is acting as Padme's advisor and is a good friend to her, and he notices that Bob is being ignored by Anakin and that when they are together with Kenobi, his opinions are often rejected in favor of the more aggressive attitudes of Kenobi and Skywalker. Slowly and insidiously, Sheephen begins to convince Dirtswimmer that he is the more powerful Force user and that his powers are not being appreciated.

Meanwhile, Obi-Kenobi and Siri are looking for Mando. As they investigate, they share some romantic tension as well. Eventually they track Mando to Kamino where they find the clone army has already been constructed on the orders of the current Supreme Chancellor. They make contact with Jango Fett, a civilian contractor who was hired to be the clone template. While talking to him they are attacked by Mando, who has come to plant bombs in the cloning facilities. Fett earns their trust by fighting Mando alongside them and disabling the bombs himself.

After the battle, Kenobi and Tachi follow Mando to Geonosis. There, they find that a massive droid army has been produced with the intent of waging war against the Republic. They are captured and separated, and Dooku appears to attempt to turn Kenobi to his side. The conversation goes about as well as it does in canon.

Dirtswimmer contacts Anakin to inform him that the Supreme Chancellor has been voted out of office because he ordered the clone army without the consent of the Senate, and Palpatine has already won the vote to take his place in a landslide. He also mentions that they have lost contact with Obi-Wan. Anakin and Dirtswimmer agree that this is bad news, so Anakin and Padme go to Geonosis to try to find them (where they get captured) while Dirtswimmer is convinced by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine to talk the Jedi Council into leading the Republic’s new army in a battle against the massive droid factories that Obi-Wan reported on.

The Council reflects for a while, and someone mentions that they wish Master Yoda had not left the Order because he, being one of the greatest and most powerful Jedi Warriors, would have known what to do. Finally they refuse the advice to take the army. We get an inkling that Jedi are somewhat vain - they say things like “The Jedi order has protected the Republic for millennia, we will do so now.” Instead of taking the Clone Army, a relatively small task force of Jedi is sent instead.

The arena scene happens normally, from the gladiator fights to the Jedi being outnumbered in the middle of the arena and surrounded by SBDs. Then, suddenly, Bob shows up to save the day along with the Clone Army. He obviously rejected the Council's decision in favor of trusting Palpatine, which seems to have been the proper call.

Obi-Wan and Anakin are honestly appreciative of Dirtswimmer for the first time. While he stays behind to  coordinate the clone attack, Skywalker and Kenobi chase down Dooku. When they get to the staging area where Dooku plans to escape, Kenobi is suddenly confronted by Siri Tachi, who has taken the Sith's side. She immediately knocks Anakin to the side, then says that Dooku has already fled and tries to convince Kenobi to join her. She makes several good points about the corruption of the Republic and also saying that they would be able to be together if they left the Jedi Order in her plea and Obi-Wan is tempted, but finally refuses. Tachi gives him the “if you’re not with me, then you’re my enemy,” line and they duel, ending with Kenobi being forced to kill his lady love. It is very emotional. 

Bob and the other Jedi lead the clone army to victory.

The end of the film shows Anakin and Padme marrying in a private ceremony, Kenobi mourning Tachi, and Dirtswimmer and Sheephen counseling each other even more.

RotS - Buckle up buttercups, we're going down the rabbit hole now.

Starts with the attack on Coruscant and the A-Team rescuing Sheephen from Dooku. When they get aboard the Invisible Hand Kenobi is distracted by Grievous, leaving Anakin and Bob to fight Dooku together. While Anakin is a good match for Dooku in terms of dueling prowess, Dirtswimmer is very clearly out of his depth. Still, when Dooku knocks Anakin back and makes a move to execute Palpatine, Dirtswimmer manages to leap forward and kill the Sith Lord instead. Anakin is clearly upset that his fellow Jedi - who isn’t nearly as skilled with a saber as he - managed to get the kill, whereas Bob is getting pretty cocky about what he managed to do.

So they land, get celebrated, blah blah blah. Anakin is starting to have nightmares but, even though this version of the Jedi Order is a lot more lax with relationships, he can’t exactly go to any of his fellow Jedi for help because his marriage is still technically a no-no (even though several Jedi like Aayla Secura and Kit Fisto are shown to have developed ‘secret’ relationships like.) As a result, he starts speaking with Palpatine since the man is a close friend of Padme’s.

So, in a few shots to show how the war is progressing we are shown that 1) the Jedi are becoming more and more aggressive in their combat styles, and 2) there is a squad of bounty hunters led by the elusive Mandalorian from the previous film that is proving very effective against Jedi. At one point we get a shot of Aayla being ambushed and killed by this squad so we know they mean business.

There are many mentions that "I wish the great warrior Master Yoda were here to lead us" but again, he does not appear.

At the same time as all this, Jango Fett is the key liaison between the clone army and the Senate. He is a GoodGuy(™) trusted by both the Jedi and the senate.

The film follows most of its plot, with the addition of Sheev influencing both Anakin and Bob at this point - Bob through his feelings of rejection by his master and fellow former padawan, Anakin through his pride and fear of losing Padme (that way we can still get some good "tragedy of Darth Plageuis the Wise" action in here). Obi-Wan is sent out to finish off Grievous. Instead of Anakin, Palpatine wants Bob to be planted on the Council as his liaison with the Jedi. When Obi-Wan leaves he secretly tells Anakin to keep an eye on Dirtswimmer because he’s afraid of the influence that Palpatine is exerting over him.

The Jedi Order realizes that the Chancellor is the second Sith and they send The Squad to kill him. This time, though, Sheev doesn't fight (because there's nothing wrong with a powerful force user not being able to also duel with lightsabers.) Instead, Mando and his squad are there to protect Palpatine. The Jedi immediately attack and start picking them off one-by-one, but both Agen Kolar and Saesee Tiin are eventually killed.

Finally it's just Kit Fisto and Mace Windu back-to-back fighting the rest of the squad. Fisto sees a chance to kill Mando (who he has been hunting, since Mando is the one who killed his lover Secura). Kit smashes Mando against the wall and is about to murderize him when the helmet comes off and he sees that Mando is Jango Fett. In Fisto's moment of confusion, Fett manages to stab him with a vibro blade. Windu kills Fett, but Palpatine uses his Force lightning to kill Windu. A real paper-beats-rock-beats-scissors moment.

Interspersed with this duel is Kenobi's attack on Grievous. Kenobi is clearly taking out all of his negative emotions from the past few years on the cyborg, who seems to be enjoying it at first because he thinks he stands a chance. Eventually, though, it becomes clear that Grievous is outmatched. Kenobi kills him somewhat brutally. Maybe reminiscent of that CGI cutscene version of Grievous’s death.

Meanwhile, Bob arrives at Palpatine’s office just after Windu’s death and reveals that he was part of the plan all along and has become Palpatine’s new apprentice. Sheephen tells Bob to go to Mustafar to destroy the Separatist leadership (which was sent there by Grievous when Kenobi first attacked) in order to end the war.

Anakin watches this interaction from a distance. He sends a communication to Obi-Wan to warn him that Palpatine is the Sith and that Bob is going to Mustafar on his orders. Obi-Wan starts to tell Anakin to wait for his return when suddenly Palpatine gives the big "The time has come, Commander" speech, and Obi-Kenobi gets blasted out of the sky by Cody.

We get the Order 66 sequence which is largely unchanged. Owen helps Kenobi escape and together they fly away, clones everywhere are turning on and killing their Jedi leaders. Meanwhile, Anakin leaves his extremely pregnant wife on Coruscant, promising, "I'm doing this for us," and takes off after Bob.

Bob and Anakin arrive on Mustafar at the same time, where they find the Separatist leaders already massacred by their own droid armies. Anakin acts completely surprised by this, but Bob just starts laughing and says, "I thought they were my final test, but I was wrong. It’s you." He ignites his lightsaber and says, "Only one of us is leaving this place alive."

Cue massive lightsaber battle. Anakin and Bob are jumping all over crap, lava is everywhere, the whole nine. Obi and Owen arrive on the planet just in time to see both padawans fling themselves at each other over a lava river, and both of them seemingly fall in. They try to fly their ship down to rescue Anakin, since it is clear that Bob has turned to the dark side. Before they can, though, a Star Destroyer arrives in-system and they have to run away.

Obi pretty much breaks down. He has lost his master, killed his girlfriend, lost a padawan to the dark side and just watched that fallen Jedi kill his favorite padawan. Owen is also seen with tears on his face because Anakin was one of his best friends.

Kenobi and Owen meet up with Bail Organa, who has secreted Padme away to his fancy moon-based hospital where she is dying in childbirth. Kenobi (who figured out a long time ago that she and Anakin were married but didn't do anything about it) can't bring himself to tell her that Anakin is dead and instead promises that he is on his way and will be there soon. She dies with a smile on her face talking about how Ani is her hero, and Kenobi breaks down big time.

Meanwhile, Palpatine is on Mustafar and a scarred figure drags itself out of the lava river. The person is too disfigured to recognize, but Palpatine is pleased and collects them. They are then sealed into the Vader suit, and Palpatine tells them, "You have finally earned your place at my side. Rise, Darth Vader." We get the dramatic shot of the full Vader suit stepping out of the shadows, with the implication being that Bob is the one inside because he was the one who wanted to join Palps.

Organa and his wife take Leia because they have just suffered a miscarriage that no one knows about, so it will be easy to protect her as their child. Owen offers to take Luke and he and Beru return to Tatooine - the place that he most hates - in order to protect Luke from Bob and the Emperor. Though Kenobi accompanies Owen to protect Luke, there is now a level of animosity between them because they both blame Obi-Wan for Anakin's death.

The episode ends with Owen and Beru holding Luke and watching Tatooine's twin sunset.

-

So. All of that being said. The big reason why I think that the Prequels would be better for these changes is this: I want all of Star Wars to be centered around the big reveal that Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker. The Phantom Menace was written with the idea that everybody already knew - I think that it would have been a lot more fun if we got three whole movies that led you to believe that Anakin Skywalker was dead and gone. That Bob Dirtswimmer was in the suit, he had killed Luke’s father, and he was the evil one. Then, “No, I am your father,” would hit so much harder. I also think it would be more fun to have Yoda missing all the way through the Prequels but built up with the expectation of him being this incredible warrior because it builds into the twist in Empire - by the time we get there, we are expecting someone incredible. Even Master Windu was talking about what a great warrior this Yoda was… the fact that he is actually just a muppet with a great understanding of the Force would feel much more impactful.

So there we go. That’s the type of Prequel trilogy I would have wanted. If you actually managed to read all of this… you have my sincerest apologies.

[thevindicativevordan]

Any thoughts on Star Wars? The sequel trilogy specifically.

Used to be more obsessed with that franchise than anything else in the world.

Unlike most it wasn't The Last Jedi or Rise of Skywalker that disenchanted me. I was out after The Force Awakens. What a garbage movie, a soulless rehash of A New Hope that rendered the entire Original Trilogy pointless. Prior to the Disney buyout I was a Star Wars fanatic. I devoured obscure articles on Wookieepedia as a child. Teen me couldn't get enough Star Wars books, even trash like Darksaber. Ben Skywalker and Jaina Solo were my favorite characters from the old EU, and Lucas can seethe to his dying day but I thought Mara Jade was awesome. I watched the VHS tapes of the OT until they broke, and seeing Revenge of the Sith in theaters for my birthday as a kid remains one of my favorite childhood memories. On the original Xbox I must have played the campaigns for Star Wars: Battlefront and the KOTOR games over 20 times. When Disney bought the franchise and announced the reboot, I was sad but as a DC fan who came in with the New 52, I had some hope that maybe this would be a good thing. And hey, Legends actually got a decent ending with the Sith finally being completely destroyed and the Skywalker lineage living on. So I gave Disney a chance, went to see TFA with my family... and walked out depressed.

Now I don't care at all. Somehow I successfully managed to sever the emotional connection I used to have. Doesn't bother me when I see the franchise helplessly flailing about these days. I played Jedi Fallen Order and enjoyed that, I'll probably play the sequel, and that's the extent of my engagement with the franchise these days. My littlest sister is a big fan of Star Wars, or at least the Clone Wars and Sequel Trilogy eras. She likes Ahsoka, Anakin, and Kylo the most. She likes Rey. I don't flip out on her for being "wrong" and enjoying those movies any more than my dad did at me enjoying the Prequel Trilogy which he hates. My dad enjoyed the Mandalorian. I have fun talking Star Wars with them, it's been a blast to see my little sister finally get old enough to play through the KOTOR games. I just don't obsess over Star Wars anymore.

At least with Legends, as dumb as it got, I saw the Luke story I wanted to see of him rebuilding the Jedi and having a family. Legends Luke accomplished what his father could not. Legends Han and Leia got their happy ending despite the heartbreak of Jacen's fate. Their fates in the ST are just bafflingly awful. All three die total failures who accomplished sweet fuck all, in some cases outright regressing from where they were at the end of the OT, and the Skywalker lineage ends in total disgrace while the Palpatine bloodline survives through Rey. Whatever, I guess they'll just retell Legends Luke stories with Rey since they basically soft rebooted the franchise to make her the central replacement for Anakin and Luke. She's the one who actually ends the Sith for good and she's the one who will rebuild the Jedi. Long as my sister enjoys what comes next, I guess I'll just treat the Legends ending as my personal canon and treat the ST as fanfiction.

[bedlamsbard]

@comentter asked about the TCW series finale

Sorry if I don't remember, but did you ever talk about the last 2 episodes of TCW? I only remember the motion capture thing from the first 2 of the arc. I was annoyed at the changes to the story they previously established in the novel and Rebels (which included Rex and Ahsoka splitting up) and for some reason I can't figure out, it didn't feel like a real ending to me...

I don’t think I’ve talked about it past expressing my annoyance about using Sam Jackson!Mace and Hayden Christensen!Anakin during Ahsoka’s vision. (WHICH I AM VERY ANNOYED ABOUT.)

I don’t have particularly strong feelings about Shattered/Victory & Death -- I think they’re two of the better episodes of S7, but I think S7 is honestly the weakest of all TCW as far as theme and story arc go.  They are also, unfortunately, probably the most aggravating case in S7 of throwing out previously established canon from Johnston’s Ahsoka novel and from Rebels.  And like, there’s not really all that much to throw out! So you mostly have to work to do it!

(Under a cut because this got long and honestly I probably forgot stuff since I haven’t rewatched in a while.)

The big difference is, obviously, the change in location from Mandalore (I believe the novel either strongly implies or outright states it’s in the middle of the battle?) to the ship.  Putting aside Filoni’s comments from SWCE a few years ago about Ahsoka teaming up with giant wolves (I think it’s extremely likely that that was wistful thinking and concept art on his part, rather than George Lucas’s actual plan), the advantage of putting Order 66 on a star destroyer in hyperspace is that it’s about as confined a space as you can get with no escape.  And that works pretty well in the actual episodes -- it’s a nice callback to “Brain Invaders,” as well, though I’m not sure it was done deliberately.  It also limits the number of moving parts available, so rather than having to worry about Mandalorians on both sides (and civilians...would have liked to see those in the Siege eps...that’s a different rant), all that the audience has to worry about are Ahsoka (and Rex, later on), the clones, and the wild card, Maul. Which admittedly is done very well -- like, the way the clones turn on Ahsoka?  Terrifying!  I don’t think they really played into the claustrophobic atmosphere of being trapped on a ship in hyperspace with no way out enough; I actually do think Brain Invaders and A Test of Strength, and even the flashback scenes in Jedi Fallen Order, did it better.  (Not even ONE scene of crawling through the vents? are you even Star Wars?)  On the one hand, it’s been done before, do you really have to do it again?  On the other...y’all made the decision to do this.

I actually hate that Ahsoka has the ~vision of Anakin’s fall -- it’s very jarring, it makes no continuity sense (in all honesty, it’s the sort of thing I’d expect from the ST, so maybe in that context it does make continuity sense, lol), and I think to some extent that it weakens her later reaction to Vader/Anakin?  Also, as I’ve said before I’m very, very aural and pretty sensitive to character voices: the decision to use Jackson!Mace and Christensen!Anakin, even with Hayden transitioning into Matt Lanter, threw me out so badly that the scene lost all emotional impact.  This is a me problem.  Most people I know were just happy that Hayden was getting acknowledged.  Which is honestly not a great storytelling method, we want to tell the story and not acknowledge other actors. But again: this is a me problem.

I really do love the rising sense of tension from the beginning of the episode to the actual Order 66 moment.  It’s just genuinely terrifying, since the audience knows what’s coming all along.

Maul -- *flips hand*  I love Maul.  I think these two eps did a really good job at showing how terrifying Maul can be, even without a lightsaber -- especially without a lightsaber, rather.  I was a little hesitant initially about Maul being able to destroy the hyperdrive with the Force alone, but after thinking about it for a day or so (back when the ep aired, last May) I was fine with it.  I think Maul’s the one character for whom that kind of sheer power is believable, going back to his TCW debut -- if you ever look at spider-Maul closely (and Sam and Dave talk about this in the commentary to that arc), you’ll notice that some of the pieces of metal on his spider body aren’t actually attached, they’re hovering nearby; he’s holding his spider body together with the Force itself.

Rex. The other big departure from canon, because of his “we all had a choice / I didn’t betray my Jedi” comments in Rebels.  From a storytelling POV, this is the most dramatic possible route to go, and it makes sense that they did it.  I think it was either @alexkablob or @mylordshesacactus who said back when that it works well that Rex can’t shake off the command from the chip, that none of the clones are immune to it, because otherwise it looks like none of the other clones cared as much about their Jedi as Rex did about Ahsoka.  I do genuinely wonder if back in the original plan for the remaining two seasons of TCW, there was a scene where Rex had his chip removed, given that comment from Rebels. (And I’ve talked before about changes made from the ~original TCW scripts used for the Rebels backstory to the actual S7 and Mando, though admittedly in that context it was about Ahsoka.)  If originally the plan was for the Order 66 sequence to take place on Mandalore, then that suggests the unlikelihood (though not impossiblity) of Rex and Ahsoka removing his chip.  Given the arcs that we actually got in S7 there was no place to do it...I really do wonder what was in some of the scripts that have been talked about elsewhere but didn’t make the cut for S7.

(God, the one I actually really wanted was the Rex and Artoo’s Excellent Adventure one, I’ll be bitter about this forever.)

I assume Ahsoka and Rex split up afterwards -- the fake grave from Ahsoka was kind of weird to me, tbh, so I’m fine with them not going that way, but.  *shrug*  It is what it is.

The end is...fine. Like, emotional!  I had an emotion! They wanted me to have an emotion! My TCW and Ahsoka feelings have been broken for a while now so my emotions definitely were not what they would have been even two or three years ago.  (And I mean this by when the ep actually aired, not what my emotions are now; they haven’t really changed that much.  Well, my resentment grew, but it is what it is.)

I think...I just recently saw again the comment from Filoni about this, so it’s on my mind -- one of the major problems with S7 across the board, and honestly highlighted in the finale (which, again, is great), is that according to Filoni, TCW was always about Rex and Ahsoka, so S7 had to be about Rex, then about Ahsoka, then about Rex and Ahsoka, together.

TCW is not about Rex and Ahsoka.

That’s not to say that Rex and Ahsoka aren’t main characters, because manifestly they are, but the previous six seasons of TCW are not about Rex and Ahsoka.  At its core, TCW is about Anakin Skywalker, in the same way that the PT is about Anakin Skywalker (and the OT, to a different extent); TCW’s big strength compared to the films, however, has always been that it has the space to go beyond Anakin’s immediate story and deal with everything else going on in the galaxy, some of which overlaps with Anakin and some of which doesn’t.  The choice to make S7 three four-episode arcs has the side effect of narrowing the universe and limiting the stories told -- S6 is, I think, only one ep longer but feels like it’s a full season, because it’s a mixed bag of arcs of varying lengths, with a number of different foci.  Some of the claustrophobic feel of the focus on Rex and Ahsoka works for the finale because of the actual setting of the episodes, on the very claustrophobic ship, but on the other hand...thematically the whole season feels off because Filoni’s interests are very different from Lucas’s (and while we all love to give Filoni credit for everything in TCW, Lucas was showrunning it and all the really weird and controversial stuff in TCW, including Ahsoka, Satine, Mortis, and Maul, all came straight from George Lucas).  The finale feels aggressively narrow as a result -- which on the one hand, works, because yeah, it’s kind of neat and makes sense that Rex and Ahsoka don’t know anything else about what’s going on in the larger galaxy or if anyone else is alive.  On the other hand, it...doesn’t work.  (For me, obvs! Your mileage will vary!)

[saferincages]

(you might say we are encouraged to love)

I received an ask requesting I make this response its own post in full (which of course I don’t mind doing!) so here it is:

An anon in the original post asked why, “Anakin/Vader is seen as interesting for women,” and that could be a bit of a loaded question, but I think there’s a definite rationale behind it. The way it was phrased made me think of a post I saw which addressed the fundamental split between Anakin and Vader as seen by certain audiences, why Anakin is treated by many derisively because there’s an element of the “heroine’s journey” that happens in relation to his arc and the struggles he goes through. It’s here and it’s really interesting in its entirety. “The constant barrage of degradation and trauma and unfairness of a system that benefits at your expense and refuses to validate you for it. And some of that he might have been able to reconcile by “growing up,” the same way a lot of us learn to come to terms with social fuckery, but Anakin doesn’t get the space to do that. He gets a giant bundle of unaddressed trauma and psychological issues and handed a kind of ambiguous destiny about needing to save the entire universe.” <- Imagine the burden of that, and they put it on a child and then give him zero structure to cope with it.

I’m also going to add this comment from that post because I think it’s worthwhile to note: if someone makes you angry and you show anger with your very own face you are weak, you have lost face, you have shown yourself vain and driven by a selfish, animal, irrational, feminine urge to defend yourself; but if you show anger without a face, if you show it unpersonally (the less it’s connected to direct accusation or a specific ill), especially in order to execute a role, then you suddenly appear to be the one in the position of strength, because you can no longer be directly accused of selfishness. The more you can cloak anger in the guise of necessity, the more you meet the societal expectation to be dispassionate, rational, always controlled - the more justification and legitimacy and power to you, even though this mode of anger is often more destructive than the first. This dynamic, assuming it exists as I’ve hypothesized it, is why I think Anakin codes as feminine to many, while Vader appeals to a certain masculine ideal.

Basically, the gist of it is that the emotional turmoil, the trauma, the way he’s exploited for his talents or what he can provide others, the way his agency is stripped repeatedly from him again and again tends to not be the way “male” hero journeys are told. It’s feminine coding (unfortunately) for those themes to be explored. For those emotions to be plumbed and portrayed with a substantive sense of sorrow and helplessness in the central male hero - it is not the “macho” standard. Why they thought they’d get a macho, unyielding masculine power trip from Anakin Skywalker remains a mystery to me, this is the same series where its original hero, Luke (who is his son! of course there were going to be essential parallels and contrasts between them), purposefully throws his weapon away and refuses to fight, and is characterized by his capacity for intrinsic compassion rather than any outer physical strength (even Han is much less of a “macho” guy than dudebros tend to make him out to be - not only because he’s unmistakably the person in distress who has to be rescued from capture in ROTJ, he has a lot of interesting facets that break down that ‘scoundrel’ stereotype, but I digress other than to say I love the OT, and the subtle distinctions in Luke, Leia, and Han that make them break the molds of expectation). SW fundamentally rejected toxic masculinity and the suppression of emotions from its inception, Luke’s loving triumph and role as redeemer only happens because he refuses to listen when he’s told to give up on his friends or on his belief that there’s good in his father, his softness is his ultimate strength. Anakin was never going to be some epitome of tough masculinity, and George Lucas knew exactly what he was doing crafting him in that way. The audiences who wanted Bad Seed Anakin from the beginning didn’t know how to reconcile this sensitive, kind-hearted, exceedingly bright kid, with their spawn of the Dark Side notions, and I think, unfortunately, far too many then either rejected him completely or refused to understand what the central points in his characterization are about.

The fact that this narratively would have made no sense (if Anakin had been “born bad,” then there would have been no miraculously surviving glimpse of light for Luke to save - I’ve said this before, but imagine how profoundly essential to his true self that goodness had to be for it to even exist any more at that point, after all he’d suffered, after all he’d done. the OT tells us more than once what a good man Anakin Skywalker was, it’s part of what makes the father reveal as powerful as it is - if we hadn’t heard the fragments of stories about Luke’s father, it wouldn’t be nearly as shocking, but we KNOW he was a hero, an admirable man, a good friend). I can’t fathom how tricky telling the prequels had to have been to that extent - the audience knows what will happen in the end, it’s a foregone conclusion, we know he will fall, we know Vader will be created, we know the Empire will rise (though that would have happened even if Anakin had remained in the light, which is a whole other discussion). So the question became, who is this person? What influenced him? What shaped his destiny? And that ended up being a far more complex and morally fraught and stirringly emotional story than just “badass Jedi becomes badass Sith lord.”

That talented, highly intelligent boy is taken in by the Jedi after he has already developed independent thought and very intricate emotional dimension - the argument that he’s “too old” to be trained is because he’s not malleable enough to be indoctrinated the way Jedi usually treat the children they take. They may blame this on his attachment to Shmi, but she’s not the problem (if anything, had they not been so unfeeling and rigid, and had they freed her and allowed her to at least stay in contact with her son while he was training because it was a special case - they’re the ones who stick that “Chosen One” mantle on him, you’re telling me they couldn’t make an exception? but no, because they put that weight on him and then never help him carry it and constantly undermine it and question and mistrust him - Anakin would have been stronger in his training, and he would never have fallen to the Dark Side at all. There are so many moments, over and over, where his fall could have been averted, and everyone fails him to the bitter end, when he fails himself). 

And so he is traumatized, due to years of abuse and difficulties as a slave, due to having to leave his mother behind because the Jedi would not free her, due to being told to repress his emotions over and over again when he is, at his core, an intuitive and perceptively empathetic person (he wants to uphold that central tenet of his training - “compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is central to a Jedi’s life”), yet he’s made to feel he is broken/wrong/constantly insufficient. He’s wounded by abandonment issues and lack of validation and the human connection/affection he craved, and he develops an (understandable) angry streak, he’s socially awkward due to the specific constraints/isolation of a Jedi’s life and due to the fact that they tried to stamp out what made him uniquely himself, which makes him continually conflicted with a never-ending pulse of anxiety (see absolutely ANY moment where he breaks down emotionally, and you’ll see him say something to the effect of “I’m a Jedi, I know I’m better than than this,” “I’m a Jedi, I’m not supposed to want [whatever very basic human thing he wants, because they make him feel like he can’t even ask for or accept scraps of decency]” - they fracture his sense of his own humanity, Padme tries to validate those feelings but that Code is a constant stumbling block in his mind). He is troubled by fear and the constant press of grief (I would argue he has PTSD at the very least), and all around he’s met by mistrust and sabotage. 

Male heroes shouldn’t be treated as infallible in their own narratives (none of them are that, as no character of whatever gender/origin is, as none of us are), but at the very least we usually see them treated with respect by others. Anakin often gets no such luxury. He’s treated the way we frequently see women treated, and that treatment comes from the same rotten core - the idea that emotions are weak, that expressing them makes you lesser, that crying is a sign of deficiency, that fragility of any kind cannot be tolerated. Anakin is even the hopeless romantic in this situation - Padme, while gracious and warmhearted, is much more pragmatic and tries to reason her way out of her blossoming love for him until she’s of the belief that it doesn’t matter anyway because they’re about to die, and she wants him to know the truth before they do. (I’d also like to note that the closest people to him all speak their love aloud when they’re at the point of death - Shmi when he finds her bound and tortured with the Tuskens, Padme in the Arena, Obi-Wan watching him burn on Mustafar, and how unbearably sad is that? even though his mother had said it before, even though he got to hear it many times again from Padme - and it’s her last entreaty to him - we shouldn’t be pushed to the brink of death to express it). Anakin is the one gazing at her dreamily and tearing up about it and professing earnest, dramatic love in front of the fireplace (idc what anyone says about the dialogue, the way he expresses himself is entirely sincere, it’s the rawness of that sincerity that I think makes people uncomfortable bc it’s unexpected), she’s the one who talks about living in reality. She, too, has been taught to guard and temper her emotions from her time as a child queen and the years she’s spent navigating the murky political waters of the Senate, but she’s become adept at it, unlike Anakin. If anything, they’re the only person the other has with whom they can be truly genuine and unafraid of exposing the recesses of their hearts, they’re the only safe place the other has, it’s no wonder they give themselves over to that, and the fact that they do is beautiful, it’s not wrong (which I have more cohesive thoughts on here and it was the underlying thesis of my heart poured into the super long playlist for them too /linking all the things). They see the joy and spirit in the other that no one else ever sees, and they make a home there.

Anakin becomes an esteemed general not only because he’s awesome in battle and strong in the Force and a gifted pilot and a skilled leader (all of which are true), but because he shows those around him respect, and great care. So, yet again, there’s a subversion of what might have been expected. No one is expendable to him. He views the Clone troops as individual human beings. He mourns their losses (many of the Jedi, with their no attachments rhetoric, allow the Clones to be used without much hesitation or thought for their status as sentient beings born and bred and programmed to die in war, but Anakin was a slave. He comprehends their status more than anyone else could). Anakin is a celebrated hero to the public, and in private is being chewed up by fear and uncertainty. Anakin is devoted to and completely in love with his wife, but has to keep it a secret. Anakin still craves freedom that even being a Jedi has not afforded him, because of their rigor. Anakin still desperately has to scrape for even the bare minimum of approval from the authority figures around him - even his closest mentor and friend, Obi-Wan, while they are irrevocably bonded and care for each other in a myriad of important ways, often doesn’t understand him and dismisses his feelings, refuses to advocate for/stand up for him when he needs it, or tells him to calm down. I’m surprised they never tell him he’s being hysterical when he gets upset, but the connotation of being told to “calm down” when angry or sorrowful or frustrated is something most women can identify with all too well. His desperate desire to protect Padme as everything begins to curl and smoke and turn to ash around him has a very clear nurturing aspect to it underneath the layers of terror and frustration and building paranoia - all he really wants is to be able to protect and care for his family, all he hopes is to save them and have a life with them away from all the war and the political in-fighting and the stifling Order. He’d quit right that second but he needs help due to his nightmares, and no one is willing to give it to him. (Except, ostensibly, Palpatine, who has been grooming him and deftly manipulating him and warping his perceptions since he was a child, all under the guise of magnanimous, almost paternal, care. Palpatine is brilliant in his machinations, perfectly cunning in his evil. He knows exactly how to slip in and break people, and he plays Anakin to the furthest extreme. I’m not saying Anakin doesn’t have choices, he does, and he makes the worst possible ones, but Palpatine pulls the strings in a way that makes him feel that he has no agency - and in truth, he does have very little agency throughout every step of his arc, marrying Padme and loving her in spite of the rules is one of the only independent choices he ever makes that isn’t an order, a demand, a fulfilling of duty - and Palpatine poises himself as the answer to all the problems, if Anakin does as he’s told. He’s been hard-wired to take orders for too long. He is so damaged by this point, and so distrusting - Hayden said something once about how Anakin is still very naive in ROTS, even after what he’s been through in the war, he’s still so young and unknowing about many things, and then his naivete is shattered by complete and utter disillusionment, and that shock is terrible and incomprehensible for him, so he clings to the one source of power he’s given, and it’s catastrophic). He is haunted by grief and impeded by fear of loss, and it drags him into an abyss. We watch all of this happen with bated breath, we see everyone fail him, we see every moment where he could have been helped, we see every path he could take if only he had the ability to stand up for himself and had been given the tools to cope with his psychological and emotional baggage, we see that he very nearly turns back, up until the death knell at the end. We know it’s coming from the moment they land on Tatooine and meet him and decide to make him a Jedi. We know, and we still hope for it to turn out differently. We know, and it still breaks our hearts.

I don’t want to make blanket statements about typical male viewers vs. typical female viewers, that’s too dismissive of a stance to take, but on a seemingly wider scale, I don’t think many of the former (especially the ones who were either older fans or who were teenagers themselves at the time) were as interested in political nuance and a tale of abiding love and a young man burdened with more than should ever have been put on his shoulders. Since the question was basically “why does he appeal to women,” (and not just cishet women) I imagine that the answer to that varies greatly depending on any one perceptive outlook, but has a similar core in each case of us wishing we could help change the outcome, even though we know we can’t, and of wanting to understand his actions and his pain, wanting to see his positive choices and his goodness validated, wanting to see him learn healthy strategies, wanting to see his love flourish, wanting to see him freed from the shackles he drags with him, from childhood to Jedi to Vader. The crush of the standards of society and expectation on him may speak to many. He is never liberated (until his final moments of free breath). His choices are either taken or horrifically tainted. His voice is drowned out by those more powerful around him. His talents and intelligence go largely unrecognized. His good, expansive heart is treated like a hindrance. The depth of his empathy and love is underestimated - and that, in the end, is important, because that underestimation, ending with Palpatine, becomes the Dark Side’s ultimate downfall and undoing. Vader may literally pick up an electric Palpatine and throw him down a reactor shaft, but that physical action is the final answer to a much more complete emotional and spiritual journey. He throws him down and the chains go with the slave master, and for the first time, certainly since before he lost Padme, his heart is unfettered, his love is reciprocated, and he is offered a true voice, a moment of his true self, a sliver of forgiveness, before being embraced again by the transcendence of the light. It is his act of rebellion, it is his own personal revolution, his final blow in the war. The entirety of the arc hinges upon him in that moment, Luke has been valorous and immeasurably valuable, but he’s done all he can do - the final choice is Anakin’s (and it’s such an interesting case because where else have we ever been able to fear and appreciate a villain, and then totally transform and re-contextualize him?). He is in that moment, indeed, the Chosen One.

All these facets are fascinating to watch unfold if you’re willing to be open-minded and heartfelt and sympathetic to the journey, if you’re willing to dig into the complex depth of his pathos.

I remember seeing AOTC as a teenager, and my love was Padme, she was where I was invested, I identified with her, I loved her kindness and her bravery and her sense of honor and justice, I loved that her femininity did not in any way diminish her and was an asset, I loved that, while she takes charge and has the fortitude to rush headlong to the rescue, while she can fight and tote a gun and blast a droid army as well as anyone, her superpowers are her intellect and her giving heart and gentle spirit. I totally get why Anakin holds onto the thread of hope she gives to him for all of those years, and why he falls in love with her as he does, but since I felt a lot of the story through her eyes, I understood why she was drawn to and fell in love with him, too. He’s dynamic and a bit reckless, he’s courageous, but he’s vulnerable and needs support, he’s deeply troubled but also radiantly ebullient at times (the scene in the meadow where she’s so touched by the carefree joy he exhibits, how it delights her and takes her aback, because she’s almost forgotten what it is to feel that, she’s almost forgotten other people could, and here he is, warm and teasing and spirited), he is often guileless, especially with her, he’s fervent and loving in a way she’s never seen or experienced, and that love is given with abandon to her. Who…wouldn’t fall in love with that? It’s a gravitational pull. AOTC impacted me in certain other personal ways as well, I was trying to understand some nascent hollows of grief (Anakin losing his mother as he does was very affecting and heartwrenching for me, at the time I’d lost my grandfather to whom I was quite close, and I’m also really close to my own mom, so his woe had an echo to me), but that vision that I specifically had of their love, the way I interpreted it (which I may not have had words for at the time, but I certainly had the emotional response) was a dear and formative thing.

I talked about this here, but to rephrase/reiterate, by the time ROTS came out, my life had shifted completely on its axis. I was still young, but my much dreamier teenage self was being beaten down and consumed by illness, and I was angry. Anger is not a natural emotion for me (guilt and self-blame tend to be where I bury anger), and I really didn’t know what to do with it. Everything felt unfair and uncertain, like there was no ground at all to stand on. I hurt all the time, literally and figuratively, I was in constant pain. I was lonely and frightened and sleep deprived and often had nightmares (this is still kind of true lol, as is the physical pain part). Padme was still my heart and touchstone - as she remains so to this day in this story - but suddenly I understood Anakin in a much more profound way, one I’ve held onto because he’s important to me and I love him. I felt his rage, his anguish, his desire to do something, anything, to somehow change or influence the situation, to rectify his nightmares, to cling to whatever might make a difference, might save him from being drowned in the dark and from losing everything that made him who he was as a person. Seeing him try and knowing he would fail was devastating, but also…relatable, in an abstract way (obviously not the violent parts, but thematically, I felt some measure of what it was to scramble up a foundation that is disappearing beneath you, that your expectations and dreams of what your life would be can vanish in disintegrating increments). All I wanted was for someone to help rescue him, because all I wanted was for someone to help rescue me. All I wanted was the hope that things could turn around - and there is hope in ROTS, despite the unending terror and tragedy, it’s never entirely gone, because Star Wars exists as a universe with the blazing stars of hope and love ever ignited at its center - but still, it was a very personally rooted emotional exploration for me, and I only started to deal with my own floundering anger when I saw how it might consume the true and loving and softer parts of me if I didn’t hold it back. (A few years later, I went through this again in an even worse way, and the source of that rage and despair was someone I cared for, and once I got through the worst bleak ugliness of it, there were a couple of stories I returned to in an attempt to gain newfound solace and comprehension, and Anakin and Padme were in there. My compassionate, hopeful heart was being torn by that fury, and I clawed my way back up from the brink of it because I knew I could die, not even necessarily figuratively, it was…a bad time, if I didn’t find my way out. Anakin’s story is a tragedy and a fable and a kind of warning - we should not deny or suppress our emotions or our authenticity, but we also cannot let it destroy us - and then ultimately his lesson is restorative, too, that we never lose the essential part of our souls, that we must allow ourselves to feel. Balance indeed). 

As consistent and transparent as my love for Padme has always been, my Anakin emotions are actually so close and personal that I intentionally avoided ever exposing them for actual years, it’s like…basically in the past month that I’ve ever been truly honest about it on Tumblr, because exposing that felt like too much, but I don’t really care about keeping it quiet any more, and that’s very cathartic. 

I myself am an incredibly emotional person, and I don’t believe that Anakin’s emotions are negative qualities, which I meant to underscore. In fact, his open emotions are an exquisite part of him, and it’s the Jedi who are wrong for trying to stamp that out, when his emotional abilities are part of what define him in his inherent goodness and his intellect and strength. He has an undying heart. For he and Luke both to stand as male heroes who represent such depth of feeling is really special, and vital to the story. Anakin is the most acutely human character in many respects, in his foibles and his inner strengths, in his losses and his longings and his ultimate return to his true self - that’s why we feel for him, that’s why we ache and fear for him, that’s why we rejoice for him in the end.

Other people could speak to the Vader part of it much better than I can, Vader’s an amazing and very interesting villain (the fact that, as Vader, Anakin is much more adhered to the Jedi code and way of thinking than he ever was as an actual Jedi, for example - he has an order to him, he is much more dispassionate, he is very adamant about the power of the Force - is endlessly intriguing, because he’s such a contradiction). I use this term for a different character, but I’m going to apply it here - Anakin is a poem of opposites. He is a center that can serve as either sun or black hole. He is a manifestation of love and light and heroism, he is a figure of imposing power and cold rage. He’s the meadow and the volcano. The question then becomes, how expansive are we? When we’re filled with the contradicting aspects of ourselves, how do we make them whole without falling apart? When we do fail, can we ever do anything to fix it? And the answers again will vary by individual, but to my mind - we’re infinite, and thus infinitely capable of, at any point, embracing our light, even if we’ve forgotten to have faith in it, and while we may not be able to fix every mistake or right every wrong, we can make a better choice and alter the path. The smallest of our actions can ripple and extend and are more incandescent than we know. That’s what he does, against all expectation. In the end, he is an archetype not only of a hero (be that fallen or chosen or divine), but of a wayward traveler come home, a heart rekindled, a soul set free to emerge victorious in the transcendent light.

In the final resonance of that story for me personally, I love him for being a representation of that journey, that no matter how long it takes to get there, how arduous it is - that things we lose can be found again, that with the decided act of compassion, pure, redemptive love can be held onto, that the light persists and that, even when it flickers most dimly, refuses to be extinguished, and can at any point illuminate not only ourselves, but can shine brightly enough to match the stars in the universe.

I hope this is at all cogent, here’s a gif for your patience ♥

[vulpinmusings]

VulpinReviews Star Wars: The Last Jedi

The Force Awakens has faced a rough reception since its debut.  Some people like it, others hate it.  But, cultural pressure, the relatively better presentation that was Rogue One, and a measure of morbid curiosity draws us all back to see Episode 8.

So, what did I think of it?  See below the break because SPOILERS

So, The Last Jedi is kinda The Empire Strikes Back to TFA’s A New Hope, but it’s also Return of the Jedi to an extent.  Despite the powerful blow of destroying Starkiller Base - which I should point out was a whole skvetchte planet with a massive military presence on it - the First Order survives with all its leaders intact, and the Resistance’s location is revealed and under attack.  The retaliatory blow leaves Leia’s forces reduced to three cruisers and no planetary base to fall back on.  Poe Dameron proves himself to still be the inheritor of the Ace Pilot role, but his drive to match the legendary Skywalker tradition of taking down big ships with small fighters leaves most of his wingmen dead and his superiors uncertain of his usefulness.  Finn wakes up, learns of the situation, and tries to “Nope!” out until a mechanic (or something?) named Rose catches him.

Meanwhile, Rey discovers that the legendary Luke Skywalker is now a grumpy old man of legendary proportions who believes the Jedi should die out with him.  Rey eventually bugs him into given her three lessons about the Force and the Jedi, and along the way she suddenly develops a psychic connection with Kylo Ren, so the two have little psychic arguments that gradually unveil the story of Kylo’s turn to the Dark Side.  Or, at least the tipping point.

Rey, Finn, Poe, and Kylo all get more of a chance to develop as characters without being overshadowed by the nostaliga factor that followed Han around in TFA.  This is helped by Leia being out of commission for the middle half of the movie and Rey not having a hero-worship thing toward Luke.  Rey’s arc is about coming to grips with who she is and the unpleasant facts about the Force and the true history of the Jedi.  Luke sums up the events of the prequel trilogy as a scathing denunciation of how the Jedi Order totally failed to detect Darth Sidious until it was too late, how those failings also made Darth Vader possible, and -eventually- how Luke’s own human failings resulted in Kylo Ren.  Rey Takes these hard truths, and the mounting evidence that her heritage is not what she, or many viewers, is hoping. Finn comes out of his medical coma still the coward he was in TFA, but getting roped into Poe’s plans to save the Resistance and working alongside newcomer Rose teaches him how to behave like a hero. Poe gets some hard lessons that sometimes dramatic action isn’t the best solution to a problem, and that those above him the chain of command will have plans of their own which he can’t see the end of.  It’s his plan that gives Finn a chance to develop, but said plan doesn’t end up accomplishing anything.

Kylo Ren... continues to be a petulant child screaming at the world, but we at least learn why.  

The heroes all gave me reasons to support their future endeavors in the galaxy, but the First Order is still a bland, bargain-basement knock-off of the Empire to me.  We get to see Snoke in person, and a demonstration of his mastery of the Force, but his character remains flat.  We learn nothing of his history, why he started the First Order, or why he’s so doggone determined to wipe out the Jedi and the hope they represent, and after a bargain-basement reenactment with Rey of the confrontation between Luke and Emperor Palpatine, Kylo betrays the old guy, cuts him in half, and helps Rey slaughter Snoke’s bodyguards (which was an impressive fight scene).  Kylo then tries to pull the “we can rule together” schitck from Empire on Rey, cementing him squarely in the Evil camp. (Because Force forbid we not have a Force-user on the bad guy’s side).  Hux displays more than a little resentment at Kylo naming himself the new Supreme Leader, but otherwise he’s just every Empire admiral we see in the OT. Phasma pops up near the end to give Finn a proper climatic duel against his old life, and she gets a more dramatic exit than “hey, there’s a trash chute we can dump her into.”  I hope she continues to return from apparent death, because there’s more to explore between her and Finn.  Phasma’s like the one villain I like.

A theme I noticed in this movie is the importance and impact of the past on the present.  Kylo Ren repeatedly talks about forgetting the past to the point of destroying it, which is the reason behind his murder of Han in TFA and his rationalizing his vendetta against Luke.  Luke likewise expresses a desire for the Jedi and their history to die, considering all the misery that’s attended three generations of his extended family because of Jedi teachings, but comes to see that dwelling on the past is clouding his mind to not only the future but the present as well.  Rey is desperate to discover her past, partly in search of strength to draw from and partly just for closure, and despite all the dark truths she uncovers in the past, she holds out hope.

Hope is another driving theme of the movie, mostly embodied in Leia and her Resistance.  Leia often calls the Resistance the spark of hope against the (surprisingly effective) oppression that the First Order represents, and speaks of unseen allies that look to the Resistance as an example.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed The Last Jedi.  The characters all had great moments, and Luke’s scenes were all fantastic at showing his character and providing enough history to show how we got from the experienced but still solidly optimistic Jedi of RotJ to the jaded hermit of now.  His chat with Yoda was inspiring, and his confrontation with Kylo was a masterful demonstration of a Skywalker at the peak of Light Side atunement (where Anakin was the pinnacle of Dark Side Skywalkers).  I do have concerns though: with Snoke’s untimely removal, we’ve lost our chance to learn the history of the First Order; going forward, it’s just going to the machine through which Kylo Ren seeks to force his history-wiping revenge fantasy onto the galaxy at large.  Also, how are they going to give Leia a send-off without Carrie Fisher? The one character from the OT hero who’s still alive is the one who’s actor is dead.  Ironic.