#documentary: the skywalker legacy

[haysianrose]

Billie Lourd and Kelly Marie Tran in The Skywalker Legacy (2020) documentary.

[padme-amitabha]

https://youtu.be/-5e9pWgyZYA

[driverdaily]

Adam Driver in the behind the scenes of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in the documentary The Skywalker Legacy

[missdaisydaily]

Daisy gets emotional as John Williams gives her Rey's score in The Rise of Skywalker "THE SKYWALKER LEGACY" documentary

[galacticidiots]

“[Ben] is someone who has hope. There’s no more ambiguity about what it is he has to do. For the first time, someone who has never had the answer now finally knows his purpose or destiny. He has to let her know that they’re together. But I don’t know that he entirely is sure of what’s going to happen from there, nor do I think he cares. I think it’s so long as he’s with her, he’s on the right path.”

ADAM DRIVER on Ben Solo’s redemption (The Skywalker Legacy Documentary)

[cathrynemoon]

Resistance girlfriends Rose and Kaydel talking and giving each other little smiles. 🥰

[sleemo]

The thing that we started with for "Who is Ben, then?" is someone who has hope. There's no more ambiguity about what it is he has to do. There’s no more seesaw that’s happening. For the first time, someone who has never had the answer now finally knows his purpose or destiny. He has to let her know that they’re together. But I don’t know that he entirely is sure of what’s going to happen from there, nor do I think he cares. I think it’s so long as he’s with her, he’s on the right path.

Adam Driver on Ben Solo’s redemption, from The Skywalker Legacy documentary. (via alderaanbraids)

[gffa]

The Skywalker Legacy documentary | The Rise of Skywalker novelization I have struggled with Ben Solo’s character a lot and, through The Rise of Kylo Ren comic, I finally came to a place of understanding the character as someone who never really had any idea what he was supposed to do or what path he was supposed to be on, that everything else, even when important elements that factored into his motivations, was window dressing for the real underlying thing about him:  He’s just never known what he was supposed to do and he’s careened from one bad choice to the next to try to find it. What I mean by that is, in the comics, Ben cites that the weight of legacy drove him to many of his decisions, but even within the comic itself, he contradicts that and, when listening to Driver talk about the character, it’s not mentioned at all.  Oh, I have no doubt it was a factor of Ben’s choices, but it wasn’t the actual problem--the problem was that he never knew what he was supposed to do, what path he was supposed to be on, and he never really did the hard look into himself to figure that out. So I actually really loved what the novelization presents as his reasons for wanting to turn Rey, why he wants to bring her to the dark side.  That it’s justification for his latest careening choice, that he’s still see-sawing at that point, it’s ambiguous what he’s supposed to do, and even during the fight on Pasaana, he has no idea what that is. He’s trying to justify it, trying to think that if he kills the light in her, then he’ll be killing the light in himself and he’s SO ANGRY that she’s resisting this pull to the dark, because it makes him question what some part of him already knows is a bullshit choice and the bullshit actions that have led him to where he is. I think that’s what makes him somewhat different from Anakin--who knew the right choices, he just buried them so far in himself that they were little more than embers that no one could reach, not until Luke (or Leia), who didn’t know the good person that had been murdered to become Vader, that he could tolerate their affection in ways he couldn’t with Obi-Wan or Ahsoka.  Anakin absolutely had the wisdom to make better choices (the “Bad Batch” arc of TCW shows that with startling clarity), but didn’t.  I’m not so sure that Ben Solo ever managed to get that wisdom. Because, in contrast, Ben seems to genuinely just not have any flipping idea what he’s supposed to be doing.  He’s never had the answer. Whether that’s because he refused to acknowledge the answer or because he just could never parse any of this stuff in his head or it’s some murky combination of the two (which is what it usually is, especially when he’s had Palpatine’s voice in his ear for so long, but we also saw Tai directly telling him that he wasn’t doing the hard work of really understanding himself, which is essential for who a Jedi is, showing that Ben was ignoring the training on some level), this is someone who genuinely seems to just have no clue and is desperately trying to commit to any path that he thinks might be the answer. So he see-saws back and forth, there’s nothing but ambiguity for him.  He does terrible, monstrous things as Kylo Ren, he’s angry that his mother still loves him and that he can feel it in The Last Jedi, he’s been fighting his father’s memory since The Force Awakens, he thinks he can’t go back to his mother, but Leia dies trying to reach him one last time, even Rey knows that he’s wrong about how he can go back to her.

Ben Solo makes sense to me as someone who has no internal sense of what the right path for him is and he’s so tortured by this that he’s willing to do terrible things or listen to terrible voices in his head (voices that preyed on him, voices that deliberately attacked a vulnerable young man, that is absolutely a factor, but that cannot take away all of Ben’s agency in his own choices, especially given the people he’s gone on to hurt or kill and at least some deep down part of him knows that his family loved him, that’s part of why he’s so angry at them) that he keeps trying to justify all of this in an attempt to finally feel things have clicked into place inside him. Only by letting go of all of it, the desperately trying to force one path or another, trying to impose his will on the galaxy around him, of trying to force Rey to the dark side because he’s angry that she’s trying to stay true to the light, that she’s resisting the dark, that it makes him question himself, especially given their connection, only then can he find the sense of internal rightness he’s been searching for his whole life. And, honestly.  As Anakin’s grandson, “careening from one bad decision to the next because he has no goddamned idea what he’s actually supposed to be doing and he’s desperately trying to make this path the right one for him, until he finally lets go of all of that internal bullshit and does something for someone else even at the cost to himself” is pretty fitting.

[haysianrose]

KELLY MARIE TRAN,  JOONAS SUOTAMO, MIMÎ M. KHAYISA and LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA in THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (2019) and THE SKYWALKER LEGACY (2020) documentary.

[proserpineisback]

TROS

If the only problem with TROS was the death of Ben and the rest of the movie was a masterpiece, then maybe I could forgive them. But the serious problem here is that the ENTIRE FILM is an absurdity on its own. You kinda feel like gathering all the facts across the trilogy and distribute them proportionally in each of the films so it all feels cohesive. But that couldn´t be done because Lucasfilm obviously didn´t map this project as a trilogy which it´s absolutely embarrassing. It wouldn´t have costed much for the board writers to sit for a week and write ONE STORY and divide them in three acts just like every writer does when making a book or an independent film or a short film or a documentary, Jesus there are so many people out there writing way better stuff than this with almost nothing of a budget. Having to use different directors is no excuse. The team behind the Mandalorian proves that, they obviously work as a team and so far they seem to treat the Star Wars legacy with respect taking old facts and carefully placing them where they´re needed.

Now, what pisses me off the most about this film is definitely the irrationality of Rey´s arc. The Rey who stood in front of Palpatine and told him “You want me to hate you but I won´t, not even you” is the same Rey who spent THE WHOLE MOVIE attacking Kylo over and over again out of nothing. I´ve spent this whole year wondering why they were fighting in the rain, only to find out that it was for nothing other than Rey´s sudden rage. Wondering why was Kylo flying his TIE towards her and why was she backflipping over it, only to find out it was for nothing too, were they trying to kill each other? Just after Kylo told her that he didn´t want to kill her? Did the conversations in TLJ were all for nothing and they´re back to zero? It´s like all JJ wanted was to retcon TLJ and have cool shots, which they are. The fights are very well choreographed and performed, and they´re visually beautiful and majestically scored, but that doesn´t take away the fact that plot-wise they´re absolutely pointless. When Kylo starts to talk about her past, she again attacks him in a way that for someone who believes in the good side and the Jedi and the light and repulses everything that has to do with the dark side, seems pretty infuriated and aggressive. If she was pissed off about everything the First Order did during the Allegiance comics, it would have made sense for her to mention it at least, because as it was presented it all seems pretty illogical and only for show. Again, they make her look as a person who it´s not enough informed about anything and can´t use her words to stop being one. She didn´t even think in taking advantage of Kylo´s second offering of joining him to defeat Palpatine, then if she didn´t want the throne and was so worried about Kylo becoming emperor, she just could have TALKED and tried to bring him back to the light. But that didn´t even crossed her mind, she just wanted him dead until she actually killed him and didn´t want him dead anymore just because she felt Leia dying, and I can´t believe Chris Terrio has repeated the same also pointless fight between Batman and Superman where Batman remembers his mother and suddenly decides to not kill Superman after beating him badly. I absolutely hated that movie and I was hoping he wouldn´t bring any of it into this. Saddly, I was wrong.

You can´t just link Rey to Palpatine out of nothing. You either connect her to him from the very beginning throwing hints of it or you don´t link her with anyone from the past at all. And you can´t just bring Palpatine with absolutely no excuse, it makes it obvious no one planned to have him behind it all from the start. The concept of Rey Nobody settled by Rian Johnson was a good idea so all kids around the world could relate to her, giving an important message that you don´t need to come from something important to be someone. But if the idea here was to prove that someone who comes from the dark side can choose to be light side, then DEVELOP it through the entire trilogy.

Bringing new supporting characters in the last two films has resulted in a crowded mess when everyone gets to say a line with no purpose, wasting the film´s time. When they presented Rey, Kylo, Finn and Poe as the main characters in TFA, it was understood that the story would be told through their eyes. Then why the hell bring new characters to do the job that they could do. It just makes Finn and Poe look like a pair of extras with nothing relevant to do, just being a burden to Rey when she clearly could have done everything on her own. It would have be them two going to the core worlds and convincing the people to join the cause, so they can truly be heroes in this story. Instead of having everyone joining at last minute because they think Lando is dope and decided that somehow they´re not scared anymore even now that a massive imperial fleet has appeared out of nowhere. And why having so many ships to fight the final battle when they´re gonna waste it by not showing too much of it. I mean it´s called Star Wars for a reason, but somehow they´ve wasted more time having Rey and Kylo fight than investing in the action on air. If all those fights between the two of them had place in TLJ and the talking force bonds had place in TROS, then maybe it would make a bit more sense and the story would seem to have a proportional pace in each film and a better structure. Instead, this movie seems like rushing scramble of events awkwardly mixed with all the trivia they could find from the Star Wars lore while spitting in your face absurd facts about the characters you have known for 5 years and having to believe each of them.

I wouldn´t have problems with Hux being the spy if he was suspect from the beginning. You can´t make a character to be a cold blood mass murderer and devoted to the First Order to the point of fanaticism and then turn him into a softy who reveals he is the spy and traitor of the very thing he loved, in a stupidly parodic way, and who can also be gotten rid off quite easily. And all without any character development whatsoever. I mean, fanfics make a better job with Hux as a villain.

Why create the knights of Ren if you´re gonna have them like silent dogs and get them easily killed when they´re also force users? I mean, I´m not saying that Ben is not powerful enough to finish them but apparently in the comics HE AND LUKE have fought them before and they made it out alive. It would have been a lot more interesting to have the KOR since TFA and make one of them suspect so he can be the one to bring Palpatine back to life in TROS. It would have been better to have Ben and Rey fighting them in TLJ throne room instead of the shitty praetorian guards that are killed in one second in episode III.

Why presenting new characters in Resistance Reborn if we´re not going to see them not even on the background during the resistance base scenes? It´s such a lucrative and deceitful game to have books, comics, etc. and not include them in the films in any way. I can picture them saying to the writers “Yeah, do whatever you want”.

And finally, why create such a good concept like “dyad in the force” if you´re gonna have just one of them fighting against Palpatine while the other one is in a hole. It obviously should have been them BOTH fighting Palpatine and defeating him since when they´re together they have the balance of the force. I mean, I thought that was what Star Wars was all about. It should have been all the generations of Jedi helping them BOTH since Ben Solo had already gone back to the light. Why create such a compelling complex character if they were going to make him have the exact same fate that Darth Vader had. It´s so frustrating the lack of imagination for a conclusion, it makes you cringe. The ultimate message here is that the Skywalker family was cursed and they all deserved to die.

I applaud the astonishly good performances of the actors, the realism they brought makes it all more believable and painful so we don´t forget this film actually happened. The entire movie pains me so much because I´ve grown to love Star Wars and I´ve had deep love for each of the films, yes even the prequels. I´ve defended every movie from the haters and I never thought it would come the day that I would say the saga has been completely destroyed.

[missdaisydaily]

Is the Skywalker legacy a new movie coming?!

No, that’s the title of the documentary about the making of The Rise of Skywalker

[who-talks-first]

The Skywalker Legacy documentary confirms what I was already fairly certain was true.

I don't need to go in-depth for you Bendemption fans. I know you picked up on all the little things after the death of Kylo Ren.

But I just want to go over this a bit because, while I maintain that Kylo Ren didn't deserve redemption, if it HAD to be done, this was absolutely the best (only) way it could have happened, and I really respect Adam's performance and all JJ's attention to detail.

The metaphorical (and literal?) death of Kylo Ren and rebirth of Ben Solo don't need to be explained. But the inclusion of which gives us such a tangible, real, tactile setup for his redemption. It doesn't happen here. This is just the catalyst that lets it happen.

Harrison Ford's uncredited cameo is so beautiful. It makes this scene possible. I think it's meant to be intentionally vague, but I personally feel that Leia sent him through the Force. Memory, Force Ghost, regular ghost, guilt vision, whatever - Leia made sure her son saw it.

And from then on, with the rebirth of Ben, we get to see the man he could have been. Brave. Strong. Feeling. I don't know how they do it, but his entire affect AND appearance change. The way KR holds himself, how his hair falls is entirely different from those of BS. And it's impressive acting and makeup/wardrobe. Ben's hair is... dare I say it? Fluffy. Where we all mocked Kylo for his nasty greasy Snape hair. Something about Adam's face, even when he's fighting, feels more natural, more relaxed.

You know what? In 15 minutes of screen time for BS, I actually like him. Meaning, if he had been a character in movies instead of KR, I would have liked him and rooted for him along with the other heroes. He even looks more youthful. Instead of the 40 year old appearance in TLJ, Ben looks like he's 25 (a little closer to the character's actual age, I think). And I think that's good filmmaking that all those things can be made apparent * just like that.

Anyway. I want to focus on some details. There's probably something to be said about the costume change - from the hard, rigid armor of KR to the, uh, is that a sweater? of BS. When did he have time to do that? How'd he get off Endor? I have other questions about that escape, but that's not the focus of this discussion.

Anyway, I seen all the GIFs where scenes with KR mirror the behaviors his parents (like the Solo Slide). But I think that as Ben, we really see him channel his parents.

This is the most obvious one to me:

Han in TFA at Maz's castle/Ben arriving on Exegol (some kind person already GIFed it for me)

That's very deliberate given that these are both JJ's films.

Now this may not be as intentional as I think, but it's obvious to me. Leia training with her brother /Ben answering the knights' challenge

That casual, wide stance? I dunno. It feels like something he picked up from his mom like he picked up the other thing from his dad.

All this stuff just let you see and feel what was taken away by Snoke and Palpatine. He could have been a good man, strong fighter for the light, a Jedi like his mother before him and her father before her. It gives you that sharp contrast of what you lose when you choose the dark.

Then Ben and Rey both squaring up to fight Palpatine and then he straight up removes Ben from the fight completely. That's important. It makes sure there's no misunderstanding that this is Rey's fight. No one else can fight it for her or take it away from her. Kylo Ren said "that saber belongs to me" but the truth is Rey earned it. But I digress.

TROS builds up how strong Rey is in the Force throughout the movie, showing her ability to transfer life. Something it appears she learned on her own.

So when she falls. And it's made clear that she is dead. (Her body doesn't immediately disappear, however, and I think there's another discussion to be had on why that is!)

And Ben hesitates. You can see him wonder if he can do it.

He puts his hand on Rey and transfers far more than "a bit of life". Already drained by his and Rey's life-forces being used to revive Palpatine, it takes everything that is left in him. But he is also pulling Rey back from somewhere she hadn't yet pulled anyone with her own technique. Is Ben more powerful in the Force than she? (I don't think so, but I think in another life he could have been) I think Ben only knows all or nothing. It's part of how he got here in the first place. Perhaps he could have brought Rey back from the other side without using all his strength. Perhaps not. We'll never know.

Now I do not approve of the kiss. I don't even know how to begin discussing my feelings on it. But maybe it was necessary to include it just to pacify the Reylos (as if the redemption arc wasn't enough).

But the smile. The smile is so important. We've not once seen Kylo Ren happy anywhere in the series. I don't think anything he could ever achieve would have made him happy. But Ben, maybe even aware that he is about to meet his end, is so happy that she is alive, that he succeeded in saving her, that she defeated Palpatine, (that she is in his arms?) and he finally smiles and again we see the man that should have been. It's bittersweet. As relieved as I am to see Kylo Ren perish (because, like Darth Vader, after taking so many many lives, saving only one is not enough to live a free life) I am saddened to see Ben Solo die. There's probably a conversation to be had on how anyone can be tempted by evil. I dunno. I'm not a philosopher or anything.

Anyway. My sister, who is not really a Star Wars fan but who often understands storytelling far better than I, informed me that Leia was essentially possessing her son for the duration of the redemption arc. That's why her body doesn't disappear until Ben dies. That's why he fights like her, understands Rey's techniques better, can heal like that... I don't know if she's right, my sister. I don't think it's all Leia cuz I'll be damned if she kisses Rey on the mouth.

And then my bf informed me that Ben became a part of Rey when he disappeared into the Force. That's why his ghost didn't appear later. I don't know how I feel about that. I def don't know how Finn and Poe are going to feel when Rey tells them both this. I can't imagine wanting to smooch your gf after you find out that Hitler's wannabe poser grandson is possessing her. I mean.

Okay I've been writing so long I've lost what little coherency I started with. I'm so sorry.

But I just wanted to share my thoughts on all this with you guys. My main point is that if the redemption of Ben Solo had to be included in the film, I genuinely believe that it could not have been done better - from a storytelling standpoint AND with regards to the performance itself! - than they did for TROS. My hat is off to JJ and Adam, really.

(oh and his insistence on doing all his own stunts? Adorable.)

(I'm cool for discussion on the topic, but I have neither the time nor the energy to fight any Reylos about this and anyone trying to start drama gets the ol' Instablork.)

[sleemo]

Found the runtimes for The Rise of Skywalker's featurettes via iTunes:

The Skywalker Legacy (documentary): 2hr 6min

Pasaana Pursuit: Creating the Speeder Chase: 14min 16s

Aliens in the Desert: 5min 59s

D-O: Key to the Past: 5min 34s

Warwick & Son: 5min 37s

Cast of Creatures: 7min 45s

The Maestro’s Finale (digital exclusive): 11min 4s

[starwarsnonsense]

Listen on iTunes/Listen on SoundCloud/Listen on Stitcher 

In this episode, Rachael and Kirsty aim to maintain something like normality in strange times - we start off the show by briefly discussing the newly released 'Roll Out' and 'Galaxy of Adventures' shorts, before taking a deep dive into the behind-the-scenes documentary 'The Skywalker Legacy'.

We talk about the best insights and most entertaining b-roll, as well as revisiting some of our central issues with 'The Rise of Skywalker'.

Finally, we finish off the show with a listener questions concerning Star Wars' iffy track record when it comes to romance (specifically LGBTQ relationships).

Many thanks to Christy Carew for the Scavenger's Hoard theme, and Nemling for our artwork.

Don’t forget to like us on Facebook and give us a follow on Twitter @ScavengersHoard! 

And remember - if you have any questions for us to answer on the show, email us at scavengershoard@gmail.com

[gffa]

Scattered Star Wars Thoughts: - I watched the TROS documentary and I wound up liking it more than I thought I would.  It’s not super in depth or anything but one of the things it reaffirmed for me was that I genuinely liked a lot of the pieces of what they had and a lot of the thought that went into the movie, like how balance in the Force isn’t something that’s forever, like how the focus on this set of movies was meant to be about the weight of the previous generation’s larger than life, legendary accomplishments, on the current generation. I really think, either splitting this movie up into two (so it could flesh things out better) or giving them another six months to a year to really tighten up the editing, could have made a huge difference.  Some of the problems are in the foundation, like the scope of these characters is not great, but if they’d had two movies instead of one, maybe we could have gotten Force Ghost Luke interacting with Ben, to give the character more than just two minutes with someone other than Rey.  Maybe we could have gotten some Rey & Rose interaction.  Give Rose more to do.  Make this feel like a more fleshed out set of characters. I like what’s here and I like a lot of the thought that was going into the movie, but I think they really didn’t learn their lesson after Solo, where Iger may have said, yeah, my bad for pushing Solo into a May release instead of December, before it was really ready/the timing was right. - At the same time, I’m reading the TROS novelization and I’m enjoying it well enough, but I was thinking, “Why isn’t this making my heart sing?  There are things Carson is doing with it that I love!  So why isn’t this making me absolutely itch to read the next page and the next page?”  And I’m pretty sure it’s down to that I just didn’t need those gaps filled in, the way that my other favorite novelizations did for me--the Rogue One and The Last Jedi novelizations.  Those are the two movies I walked out of the theater going, “I enjoyed that, but I needed better connective tissue.”  The novelizations gave me that, so I loved them.  TROS was fine enough for me, so I wasn’t desperately hungry for something to fill in the gaps. To be fair, I’m only a quarter of the way through it, there’s still plenty to go, they’re still on Pasaana where I’m at, and I’ve enjoyed some of the stuff Carson has added, though, admittedly, I wish there’d been even more.  It’s such a short novelization for a movie that was already so crammed full of stuff it hardly had time to breathe. One thing I think it deserves credit for, though, is that even from the beginning, Carson has been weaving themes into the story (like Rey’s struggle with the dark side, the themes of identity and what we choose to do about that, etc.) that are working pretty well for me so far! I’m not sure this is a novelization that can change anyone’s mind if they either loved or hated the movie, but it can potentially add a boost to whatever feelings one already had. Scattered Star Wars Thoughts/2020 Resolutions Update: - Poe Dameron #18-26 - Star Wars Rebels - Season 4 Extras - Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back radio play - Documentary: The Skywalker Legacy - Dooku: Jedi Lost book ver. Current total:  205/260 Scattered Everything Else Thoughts/ 2020 Resolutions Update: - Mr. Mercedes s02e07-10 + s03e01-02 Current total:  217/260 Star Wars Fic Recs 2020 Resolutions Update Current total written:  172/520