#how dare they have Han Luke and Leia all die for nothing as failures

[frumfrumfroo]

Can't believe I never noticed before that most of the dialogue in TFA is... kinda bad? As bad as anything in TROS. The prequels dialogue is bad, but you can tell it's *attempting* poetry. A lot of the dialogue in TFA and TROS is just stating the obvious or trite quips.

It's not a great movie.

[sassysnowperson]

💖 your angstiest nightmare fic please

Send me a 💖 and I'll share a fic idea I've had but never written.

Oh...dear. This is not my normal playground. But, that said (evil grin and plotty fingers) good excuse to have some fun. 

Alright, I’ve spent some time thinking about universes where Rogue One survives (don’t worry, it’ll get terrible, just give me a second), and those terrifying days when the plans are lost, nobody knows where Leia is. Like, how miserable would that be? You do all that, and then maybe it’s all for nothing, because the person who got your message got scooped up by Imperial soldiers. 

What if she never comes back? 

You see where I’m going with this, I’m sure. 

It got a little long, so the juicy details are under the cut. (TW Death, War Crimes, implied torture) 

Luke, Han, and Obi-Wan die before they ever rescue Leia. Jabba’s men rig the Falcon to explode, their infiltration scheme fails, SOMETHING happens and bam, they’re gone. Last of the Old Jedi, gone, first of the New Jedi, also gone. Leia’s trapped, and Tarkin has a fully functional battle station with no known weakness. 

And just to make it worse, lets say not everyone made it off of Scarif. Cassian’s gotta live, that man is Pain of Survival made manifest, it’s way worse if he doesn’t manage to sacrifice himself. Kay dies. Jyn too. And...Chirrut. Yes, I think that’s the worst combination. We’ve got guilt-ridden Cassian, traumatized Bodhi, and a completely bereft Baze who lost everything and it counted for *nothing.* Jedha’s still gone. Alderaan too. 

They broke ranks, stole half the alliance’s best personnel and then lost half the alliance’s fleet, and they *failed*. The Rebellion tosses them in a jail cell, and figures they’ll decide what to do with the turncoats later. 

Now, the upside is, there’s no Falcon to track back to Yavin, so Yavin has until Leia breaks. It’s enough time to evac, at least. 

Leia does break, eventually, I’m sure. There’s only so long anyone can hold out, when every lie she tells about where the base is means another planet, gone. Mon Cala, Chandrilla, Nab- 

Tarkin changes his mind about Naboo. He’s rubbing at his throat for weeks after. 

The Empire runs the galaxy, and there is. no. hope. 

Except. 

Cassian spends the first four hours of his imprisonment carefully drafting a mission report (on flimsi, they don’t trust him with a datapad). And in there is what Erso reported to him. There is a weakness. Somewhere in the core. The plans would show how to access it. But even without the plans...a sufficient explosion, detonated inside the core, should still do it. 

Cassian throws himself into planning the mission, scribbling it out on whatever he can get his hands on. He looks more than half-mad. Bodhi feels the failure as entirely personal. He feels helpless, he’s only made everything worse, and the universe  didn’t even have the decency to kill him for it. 

There isn’t anything he could do in the universe to do right by himself, but he drags the tattered remains of his consciousness together and helps where he can. Ship patrols, comm codes, standard battle station layouts. Baze, from his haze of grief and rage, spits curses and little else, at first. But eventually he realizes there’s some solace in vengeance, and he joins in. Squad makeup and weaponry and everything he knew from his dealings with Guerra. 

“Could use him, now,” Baze says, sounding almost regretful.

“He knows how to fight,” Cassian agrees.

Bodhi just flinches.  

They look like madmen, and their guards judge them as such. 

They’re not separated, though. And one month later Draven throws open the door of the cell and says, “Come on, then.” 

Cassian just gets up and follows immediately. Bodhi moves like a whipped dog, expecting to be struck. Cassian turns to him and says, his face made of granite and his eyes entirely blank, “If they were going to kill us, they would have killed us. They’re either going to offer us up to the Empire as a peace treaty, or put us to work.” 

“Please don’t say that first suggestion too loud, Andor,” Draven says, sounding pained. “I’ve kept you in the cell this long so they wouldn’t be tempted to lynch or sell you.” 

Bodhi, inexplicably, is relieved by that. It makes the sort of heartless sense he’s grown to expect from his superior officers. 

The Rebellion is almost entirely ship-based at this point. The remnants of the Mon Cal have nothing left to lose, and their fleet is turned to the Rebellion’s purpose. They are jumping frantically to stay ahead of the Empire that’s burning every safe place to the ground, struggling to find food and fuel and allies that would dare to provide either. It’s a desperate, hungry time, as they plan the counter-strike. 

Leia was right, though. The more Tarkin tightened his grip, the more people slip through his fingers. The Rebellion becomes a feral thing, full of soldiers who have already lost all there is to lose. 

The counter-strike isn’t neat, or elegant. It’s an ugly trojan-horse of a ground crew, Bodhi knew enough about the Empire’s transport logistics to sneak the soldiers in, along with enough explosives to blow up the moon the the Death Star wasn’t. It’s a slog of a firefight, but they punch their way through, into the core, and they wire up the explosives as quickly as they can. 

Next to Cassian, a young tech (seventeen when the Empire blew up her world) starts twitching, choking. Cassian looks up to find a black, looming figure silhouetted in the doorway, holding a shimmering red blade. 

Whatever charges they have, they need to set them, now. Cassian is reaching for the switch when a second red blade emerges, this time from the center of the figure’s chest. He collapses with mechanical moan, revealing a slim young woman, clad all in black, behind him. 

“Captain Andor,” Leia Organa calls as she steps into view. “Apologies for the dramatics, I’m afraid I’ve grown accustomed to using what I have on hand. If you can set those on a delay timer, I’ve secured our exit.” 

Leia is gaunt, sharper than Cassian remembers her. Well, they all are, these days. He dips his head. “I’ll remain behind to ensure they go. Please, do take my team.” 

“No,” Baze says, laying his hand on Cassian’s shoulder. “It’s me.” 

Cassian looks at the depth of loss in Baze’s eyes, and the grim determination there too. Cassian knows this is one battle he won’t win. 

“Of course,” he says, inclining his head. “May the Force be with you.” The words feel alien in his mouth, and Baze flinches. 

“Fuck the Force,” Baze declares. “I’ll be with me.” But then he freezes, and Cassian wonders if he’s hearing the same thing, I am one with the Force and the Force is with me. 

“Of course,” Cassian says again, and Baze gives him a crooked smile. 

“Raze their empire,” Baze orders. 

“I will,” Cassian says, and it’s a promise he intends to keep. 

He leaves, the last of his team to go, and Leia guides them all to the shuttles. They escape. 

Cassian hadn’t planned for an escape. His heart is in his throat as he watches the station, still whole, still whole, and then - white sears across his retinas, and he flinches away from the sight, even as he’s sobbing with the joy of it. He hears Bodhi on his right, breathing slow and steady for the first time since Cassian’s  known him. Leia, on his left, just gives a satisfied grunt.  

Cassian doesn’t look up, so he never sees the way Leia’s eyes don’t flinch away from the explosion. He doesn’t ever wonder why, if the light from the death star is so white it’s shading it to blue, Leia’s eyes are burning gold. 

[ariainstars]

Love and War: Politics and Spirituality in Star Wars

As I followed the Star Wars saga closely last year, I couldn’t help noticing that its central theme is not Good against Evil, but Love against War.

More precisely, it seems like a long parable about a mind at war: the galaxy far, far away keeps struggling with different powers which, until now, never were balanced by a common ideology. 

  The Jedi: We Have No Personal Agenda (…do we?)

As we get to know the Jedi in the prequels, we can’t be but disappointed. The supposed keepers of peace, guardians of the Force, seem a bunch of elderly, stuck-up guys who are wary of anything coming from the outside. Their meetings take place in a place which even looks like an ivory tower.

We witness the first conflict in the saga in The Phantom Menace, which absurdly is kicked off by two weird-looking guys who seem interested in nothing but their economic power.

The irony is that in their own way, the Jedi do not seem more open-minded than them; though not interested in wealth, they do only think of themselves - of the status their rank as Jedi gives them. They are so convinced of being the “good guys” that they will not lift a finger to end a raging conflict, and they don’t care what will become of a weirdly powerful nine-year-old boy who just lost his only living relative, his past and the only home he ever knew. 

It is Padmé, who is not a Jedi and has no power in the Force, who takes matters in their own hands, to the point where she falls on her knees before the Gungans asking them for their assistance..

I have repeatedly heard the Star Wars prequels being criticized due to the seeming lack of agenda of the protagonists. Which is right - they basically haven’t. The only agenda everybody seems to have is to keep things the way they are so that their personal, comfortable situation won’t change. 

But the truth is that they are not aware of the power pulling at them: there is someone who is the mastermind behind all that happens during Anakin’s youth, and we can assume that he was at work even before the boy stepped onto the stage. 

It is Senator Palpatine who convinces the Queen of Naboo to plead for a vote of no confidence against Chancellor Valorum, which in the end leaves Palpatine himself in charge. It is he, again, who makes JarJar convince the Senate to give him emergency powers due to the surge of the Separatists.

Palpatine is repeatedly shown as being Evil incarnate. Absolute power is his ultimate goal. For him, it is all or nothing. There is nothing human about him, ever, as good as he is as posing as a mellifluous politician who only has the best ends in mind.

And on top of it, Palpatine makes it appear as if he only has the purest motives, leaving the dirty work to others: Anakin marches into the Jedi temple killing everyone…

…Obi-Wan cripples Anakin mercilessly, which gives Palpatine the chance to strap him into the armor and mask that he will hence need in order to survive at all.

  The End of Everything We Loved

The name “Devil” means “separator”. Palpatine’s influence leads to separate all people who ought to belong together: friends…

 …husband and wife… 

…brothers and sisters. When they first meet, Luke and Leia don’t realize for a long time that they are, actually, siblings.

Vader doesn’t recognize his own daughter…

…nor his son: during the trench run we hear him say ���The Force is strong with that one.”

  The Jedi’s failure

Enter Anakin, someone with huge personal agendas. Anakin has known slavery, the pain of separation from his mother, the helplessness having to watch her die, the fear of losing wife and unborn child in a similar way.

Does that make him an evil person? We see Anakin struggle against his fears and his violence for years. His deepest impulse is to use his enormous strength in order to protect others, but he isn’t allowed to. He can only be active if the Jedi order him to, which leads among other things to the absurd situation of having to save Palpatine, i.e. evil incarnate, risking his own and his master Obi-Wan’s life; while he was supposed to toughen it out when his own mother, a woman who probably never harmed anyone in her life, was tortured to death. 

Instinctively, Anakin’s heart always told him who needed his help. But this generosity and protectiveness never was appreciated by the Jedi, to whom “the Code” came first of all.

But what is the Jedi code, looking at it, if not a strategy to detach themselves from the world?

No families of their own.

No possessions.

No close attachments.

How is anyone supposed to still see if someone is in pain, when he was trained from early childhood on to live in a metaphorical ivory tower? 

Though not actually evil-minded (they assuredly do not want power or promote terror), the Jedi are in constant denial of the truth around them. They witness Palpatine’s ascent over and over and never realize that the most powerful Sith Lord of all is sitting a few meters away from them. 

Because to the Jedi, “what can’t be doesn’t exist”. Palpatine may be a Sith, but officially, belongs to the Jedi. Count Dooku even warns Obi-Wan; the Jedi proves his denial again with his words “Impossible. The Jedi would have sensed it.” 

So, not wanting it but also not knowing what they were doing, the Jedi enhance the conflict. And the Skywalker family, whose founder had been fathered by the Force itself, is torn and kept apart from both Jedi and Sith. 

Now we could argue: who would want to cooperate with the Sith, to have them as part of a balance, if they are evil and never do any good? 

Do they, and do the Jedi only do good and virtuous deeds? 

Obi-Wan told Luke an outright lie pretending that Vader had been Anakin’s killer; convinced that it could end only if the son killed the father.

The supposedly evil Lord Vader is the one who finally tells the truth: he proclaims to be Luke’s father, which also unveils his old master’s lie. Luke is traumatized because the truth is the opposite of what he believed. Until this very moment he was in denial, convinced that he was dealing with his father’s killer; Vader had literally to cut off his son’s hand in order to create a dramatic pause which finally allowed him to say what he wanted to: the truth.

To believe that a deed like patricide could be a positive thing only enhances the absurdity of the situation and the depth of the Jedi’s denial. As Luke confronts Obi-Wan with his manipulation, the Jedi still does not take responsibility, beyond his grave.

The Mistake: Making Things About Oneself

So, we have seen that Evil is not always wrong and Good not always right. They are strangely connected by one common, capital fault: making things about themselves.

But we repeatedly meet people who are mature enough not to make things about themselves: Padmé, Shmi, Senator Organa, (dare I say it? even JarJar), Owen and Beru.

Luke’s meeting with Vader on Bespine is pivotal because confronted with the words “You are not a Jedi yet” Luke draws his weapon first, proving Vader right. He hates the man in whom he still sees his father’s killer. It is this hatred which could have pushed him to the Dark Side. Though unknowingly and acting out of possessiveness, Vader pushed his son away from the Dark Side by saying the truth and thus crushing Luke’s hatred for him.

Much later, as he tries to save his friends, we see that Luke has learned his lesson: he tries to convince Jabba diplomatically and draws his weapon only at the last moment.

Terrified that Vader and Palpatine might be after his sister, Luke lashes out one last time. Only when he sees his father’s robotic hand he realizes the trap he was about to fall into.

Forgiveness and love bring Vader down. Compassion has won. Peace ensues, the family is united.

But many years later, we see Luke fail making things about himself again: he fears the danger his nephew could become for everything he loves.

His moment of panic pushes his nephew to the dark side. As a long-term consequence, the young man will be the murderer of the man who used to be Luke’s best friend.

Ben adopts another name and joins Snoke; war flares up and pushes itself between the members of the Skywalker family again.

Han and Leia meet after a period of separation, each bemoaning the loss of their son.

Luke, guilt-stricken, has retired to a lonely island, away from everybody.

Only shortly before his death, Luke tries to reconnect: with his sister, his brother-in-law (symbolically through the dice), the droids, his nephew. The Skywalker family is getting closer again, hinting at a future peace.

  Conclusions

The absurd situation of this generation is that at the opposite ends of the conflict are two persons who despite their outward differences couldn’t be more alike. Kylo and Rey both are lost children, desperately searching for belonging and purpose. In the brief moment of their alliance against Snoke we can see that working together, Dark and Light side are indeed invincible.

So, must the Light Side win again in order to ensure peace? 

The Dark Side is the human Id, which is all about oneself. Its advantage is that being straightforward, the Id can’t lie. Anakin / Vader always told the truth, as painful as it was.

The Id is aware of the fact that it needs its other half to be balanced. Hence, the “bad guys” always struggle to dominate, possess and at worst kill the “good guys”. We constantly see a powerful Dark Side user (Vader, Kylo) being at his strongest while he is chasing his Light Side counterpart (Luke, Rey). 

The Light Side is the Super-Ego, the conscience, which at its extreme might push a person to give up his life for someone else. The disadvantage is its tendency to deny that it needs its other half also; to believe to be solely in the right. The Jedi (including Luke, the last and the strongest of them) often overlook vital truths: none are so blind as those who will not see.

Both Luke and Rey needed their Dark Side counterparts to confront them with the truth (“I am your father”, “Your parents are dead… filthy junk traders who sold you for drinking money”). As much as it hurts them, both need to know these truths because their false pretensions held them back from being who they truly were. 

That is why “balance” is so vitally important and the only thing that can save the day and make lasting peace. Because no one can pretend that he lives solely for others (the Jedi), and no one can exist long living only by himself and for himself (the Sith). Only acknowledging one another’s positive sides and learning to cooperate, the Force users can make lasting peace in the galaxy possible. Only when a common ground is found at last, the galaxy can finally be free of the Old Republic’s stagnation, the Empire’s tyranny and the turmoil of the Rebellion. 

Peace, at last, to people of good will.

[annes-andromeda]

My Star Wars: The Last Jedi Rewrite

Alright, so I’m gonna do a rewrite of TROS (which I’ve renamed Rise of the Fates), but before I post it, I’m gonna do some bullet points of what I’d change in TLJ. Keep in mind, that this correlates to my vision and not actual canon, so expect it to be rather nitpicky:

Han Solo lives. I feel like that’s something I should state right off the bat. He lives.

Also him and Luke are the ones that have the romance and not him and Leia. Yes, I ship Skysolo and I’ll ship it till the day I die.

But anyways, for some context, in the original trilogy they were supposed to be a sort of “forbidden romance” type, since same sex relationships were uncommon back in the day and considered taboo (sorta like in real life). So, to keep their relationship a secret, Han and Leia got married and secretly divorced after having Ben Solo. However, everyone else believed that they were still together and instead separated once Ben turned to the Dark Side. In reality though, Han and Luke were romantically involved while Leia had developing feeling towards Lando (it’s a rare pare, but I ship it hard)

Anyways, back to Last Jedi.

Han joins Rey and Chewie in retrieving Luke from Ahch-To. And no, Luke doesn’t throw Anakin’s lightsaber over his shoulder (that was a stupid move). Instead, he gives it back to Rey solemnly and takes some convincing to train her. Despite feeling bitter after the events of the Jedi Temple and Kylo Ren, Luke has glimpses of his old self when he sees Han and Chewie, and when Leia is mentioned.

Rey and Finn are the ones who have the Force bond, NOT Rey and Kylo. It establishes early on that Finn is Force-sensitive, and not at the last minute like TROS. This also increases their relationship and gives us a properly written friends-to-lovers trope rather than the poor excuse of R*ylo.

Rose is an actually good developed character. She understands early on that Finn isn’t trying to escape, and that he isn’t a perfect hero like everyone claims him to be. Also, her and Poe are childhood friends. This would add some familiarity to the trio and not make her some random girl who was introduced out of nowhere. Sorta like the Lando of the group: someone who has a past bond with one of the main characters.

The mission that Finn and Rose go on is actually meaningful and not some stupid poorly written mess. Perhaps it could be to go on a planet to gain support from the Republic, while also coming across the civilians who cannot defend themselves and live in fear of the First Order. This can add some dimension and we can see how the war is affecting not just the upper class, but the lower class as well.

Rose can also have some development with the mission: showing her compassion towards the civilians and explaining her disdain of the First Order. Similarly to how she comes across some kids in TLJ, the same thing can happen here. She can inspire hope into the younger generation to stand up for themselves and make a change. Think of it as Rose being the heart of the Rebellion, representing those who fight to protect those they love against those who would harm them.

Perhaps on this planet (I don’t have a name for it, sorry), Finn and Rose can come across Holdo and the Republic. Holdo can also be a good written character, who wants to do everything in her power to help the Resistance. And we can even get some moments that imply that she was an old friend of Leia during her time on Alderaan.

Speaking of Leia: how about giving her an actual character arc outside of “There’s still good in my son despite him not showing any signs of real change”? Holdo basically gives us a glimpse of how Leia was in her youth (and I mean before the events of the original trilogy), making us pity how we no longer see Leia smiling as much or letting herself go.

Another thing: there’s no Leia in space moment. Yeah, it was cool seeing Leia actually use the Force, but how about showing it in a way that doesn’t make you wanna snicker rather than gaze in awe (cause let’s be honest, Leia is a space goddess, not gonna lie).

Leia does get harmed in the explosion but is still the leader of the Resistance pack with Poe by her side.

And speaking of Poe: maybe don’t make him an undeveloped version of his character in TFA? Yes, he makes his mistakes but he ultimately learns from them. It’s established that Poe has a close bond with his squadron, and feels immense remorse when some of them are lost to the First Order’s attacks. He learns the true qualities of being a leader and a major theme in the story: failure is the greatest teacher of all.

Despite having help from Holdo and some ships given by the Republic, the Resistance mostly falls to the First Order, forcing Leia to call for evacuation. Poe, however, leads the battle on Crait, showing his development from pilot to leader.

So, now that we’ve got the Resistance storyline out of the way, let’s get back to our dual protagonists AND, our main relationships: Rey/Finn and Luke/Han.

Hey, look, Finn gets some actual character development and information about his past. And he’s not sidelined to be nothing but the comedic relief!

Throughout the whole Finn/Rose mission, we get flashbacks about Finns time in the First Order as a child. He was taken in as a baby and has known nothing but violence and authorities his whole life. However, that doesn’t mean Finn didn’t have someone raising him.

From the time that he was an infant to when he was an adolescent, Finn was raised by a man named Lieutenant Damarcus (a character of my creation). Despite being strict and rather serious, Damarcus was the only father figure Finn ever knew, giving him a sense of safety and security against the First Order. However, that time was cut short, as Damarcus was later accused of treachery and of being a spy for the Resistance. As punishment, he was publicly executed as a warning for those who’d dare defy the First Order. The event scared Finn for his life, leaving him alone in the world until he defected from his masters and met his new family.

If Damarcus sounds unnecessary. Trust me, he’ll be important later on in the TROS rewrite.

This would give us insight to how Finn was in his youth, and make us feel pity for the other children who were brainwashed into becoming Stormtroopers. It would also show that some children would disobey their masters, showing that they had no choice but to fight or die. It’s also implied that Finn was top of his class and had/has impeccable shooting range. So yeah, for any writers who write Finn as some dumb baby who knows nothing: stop that.

Finn and Rose also infiltrate the First Order, which causes Finn to inspire his Stormtrooper brothers and sisters to rise up in rebellion. Because hey, it actually gives Finn some development and shows that now, he wants to be a beacon of hope for those who don’t have the strength or will to fight. Also, he still fights Phasma and yes, he wins. Cause he deserves it.

Alright, Finn is done and established! Now, let’s get to Rey and Skysolo!

So, Rey has some trouble practicing with the Force. In TFA, it’s established that Rey is tough and abrasive, since she had to survive on a desert planet with hardly any food or water and bandits everywhere. She also learns that the Jedi Order was not perfect, and in their mission to create peace, they ultimately created more problems due to their hubris and hypocrisy.

And something very important that needs to be said: REY IS NOT TURNED INTO A REHABILITATION CENTER FOR KYLE RONS CRUSTY ASS. She’s her own character who has her own arc. She doesn’t try to justify Kylo Ren’s actions or try to redeem him when he clearly shows that he doesn’t want to change.

Her parentage is also made important in this. Rey always believed that someone would return to her on Jakku, but she ultimately decided that they weren’t coming back. However, she’s still curious about who her parents are and if they really cared about her. And no, her parents aren’t no one. Rey hears a voice calling to her when she goes into the cave on Ach-To, implying that her parents or family might be alive, but that they chose to abandon her and not return for her.

This can show that Rey has accepted that her newfound friends are her family now, and that whoever left her had given up on her, showing that family doesn’t have to be blood related (But don’t worry. Just like Finn, her parentage is revealed in the TROS rewrite)

Now, let’s get to Luke and Han.

Luke ultimately decides to train Rey because he can see that despite her having pulls to the Dark Side, she has goodness in her. This gives Luke hope that perhaps light still does exist in the Galaxy, and this girl who he’s just met brings out the young farm-boy from Tatooine who wanted more from life and to help those in need.

Han still feels extreme pain from when Kylo Ren stabbed him, but his focus is mostly on Luke. The boy from a desert planet who captured his heart all those years ago. Alongside making sure that Rey learns all this Force business, Han wants to reconcile with Luke. To tell him that it wasn’t his fault, and that now they don’t need to keep their relationship a secret anymore. And yes, there’s a big kiss scene in the rain between them cause I’m a sappy bitch who loves love.

Luke leaves with Rey and Han to fight against Kylo Ren and tries one last time to find the good in him, as he did with his father but years ago. However, he fails as he sees that Ren is too far gone, accepting the Dark Side of the Force. Luke and Han finally make up, and everyone in the Galaxy is like “sis, we’ve been knew”. Also, Luke doesn’t die either.

Now, let’s get to my final change that I wanted to leave for last: Kylo Ren

This punk ass bitch is probably the main reason why the sequel trilogy was such a flop: cause a bunch of teenage/grown ass women made him into a “uwu misunderstood boi who needs a hug uwu” and tried to make him a poor copy of the legend that is Darth Vader.

Instead of whatever the hell J.J Abrams did to him in TLJ, Kylo Ren does have conflict in him. However, it’s more complicated and the conflict is actually of his own making. He’s being tempted by the Light and haunted by the guilt of attacking his father. But despite this, Kylo does everything in his power to prove to Snoke (who has a bigger role in this and is actually a compelling villain) that his allegiance is to the Dark Side. The conflict drives Kylo mad, making him more prone to violence and taking anger out on any living thing he comes across.

Also, some of you might get triggered, but do I care? Meh

Kylo Ren and Hux have a sort of thing going on. Instead of fighting for power and Snoke’s approval, they wish to rule the Galaxy together, overthrowing anyone who stands in their way. Kylo promises to give Hux a higher position in power, while Hux promises to give Kylo the Galaxy. They eventually decide to commit treason against Snoke and Kylo executes him with his own lightsaber, who represents his unstable mind (don’t worry, Snoke ain’t going away that easily). By the end of the story, Kylo has finally snapped to the point of no return, sporting an uncomfortable composed and unhinged demeanor as apposed to his erratic behavior.

Another bonus point I forgot to make: In one of the books for TLJ, it states that Luke has a trophy pendent made from a Sith kyber crystal. Well, it’s revealed that the kyber actually belonged to Darth Vader’s lightsaber, which was retrieved from the fallen Death Star and then destroyed. Luke believed that one day, he’d be able to heal the crystal, but the events of the Temple left him hopeless. Now, at the end when he finally meets Finn and the rest of the Resistance (meets Poe, Rose, reunites with Leia etc.), he gives it to him, believing that someone who healed themselves from their past trauma can restore the crystal back to its original self.

Second bonus point: Ben Solo actually has a reason for joining the Dark Side. He believed that the Jedi were failures and that the Force shouldn’t just be limited to just peace and tranquillity. So, he meets Snoke and learns in the ways of the Dark Side. Luke confronts him, but doesn’t instantly attack him. He first tried to talk to Ben, telling him that he won’t force him to be a Jedi but still teach him about the Force. But Ben eventually gets violent and burns the temple down, taking some students with him who later become the Knights of Ren. Also the Knights are mentioned and appear in this. Do with them as you wish. Basically, Ben was a privileged white boy who wanted to be more privileged. Motivation established.

Last bonus point, I promise. Yes, Poe is gay. Yes, he did have a crush on Finn, but he knows that he has a crush on Rey. But don’t worry, Poe’s fine. He’s getting some in the TROS rewrite.

So, that’s pretty much it. I’ll be posting the first part of the TROS rewrite later on. Constructive criticism is appreciated and please be respectful.

[theanarchistfaery]

Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi Review

Thanks to a certain streaming service I was finally able to watch Star Wars Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. And I guess I have an unpopular opinion on it. It seems no other Star Wars movie, not even The Phantom Menace, received such a major backlash. Nonetheless I am trying to be unbiased and as honest als possible. As always, spoiler alert.

Ready for light speed!

The film opens wih the First Order (basically the Empire) hunting down the remains of the Resistance (basically the Rebel Alliance) after the destruction of the Starkiller Base (basically a more powerful Death Star). The Resistance is having a hard time losing their enemy, because, as it turns out, they have a device which allows them to track down ships while they are in hyperspace.

Finn, the deserted stormtrooper meets Rose Tico and together with Poe Dameron they develop a plan to infiltrate the First Order' mothership Supremacy and deactivate the device. But they keep it secret, because they fear that Vice Admiral Holdo would never agree to it. Finn, Rose and BB-8 fly to a casino on Cantonica to get the best code cracker in the galaxy. They hire DJ instead, a dubious code cracker who helps them in exchange for Rose's amulet.

At the same time Rey is trying to convince Luke Skywalker, who lives in exile, to help the Resistance. He refuses, stating that he blames himself and the Jedi for the treason of Ben Solo a.k.a. Kylo Ren.

While at first every word she said was wrong, Rey learns the true nature of the force herself, cuts a stone in half with a lightsaber and even has a telepathic conversation with Kylo Ren. He then tells her that Luke had tried to kill him. Luke on the other hand tells Rey, that Kylo destroyed his Jedi academy and killed most of his students. Rey however believes there is still something good left in Kylo, so she hops on the Millennium Falcon and leaves Luke behind on his exile planet, hoping she can bring Kylo over to join the Resistence.

Luke then tries to burn all that is left from the Jedi scripts. Yoda's force ghost appears and he tells him in his iconic grammar that failure the greatest teacher is.

Meanwhile Finn, Rose and DJ managed to infiltrate the Supremacy. Rey arrives there in an escape pod and meets Kylo. He brings her to Snoke. It comes to a dramatic showdown, where Kylo kills Snoke and helps Rey to escape. He does however not switch sides.

Finn, Rose and BB-8, who were surrounded by Stormtroopers thanks to DJ's betrayal, also escape. Poe has raised a mutiny against Holdo to buy them some time. He puts her under arrest and goes to the bridge. But then Luke Skywalker or rather a mental manifestation of him, shows up.

The First Order's fleet is still after them, so they decide to abandon the Raddus. Holdo however stays behind onboard the Raddus and performs a kamikaze maneuver, flying the ship with lightspeed into to the Supremacy so it gets destroyed and the Resistance ships can escape to a base on planet Crait.

Here the First Order makes a last attempt to smash the Resistance but Luke's projection shows up to distract them. The Resistance escapes and Luke, who never physically left his exile, exhausted from his massive performance, dies in a similar way Yoda did in „Return of the Jedi“.

In a final scene, back on Cantonica, we see a bunch of children who are obviously force sensitive and telling each other stories about Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance.

This may come as a shock to some of you, but I really liked it. I even would go so far as to say, and as blasphemous as it sounds, it captures the very essence of Star Wars. While „The Force Awakens“ felt more like a retelling of „A New Hope“, just with different characters, which was fine but not great, this film dares to be different and original. Sure it has some pacing problems. The sub plot with the resistence fleet trying to escape the first order and with Finn and Rose is a bit too long and too complicated, but it wasn't too bad. What I liked the most about it, was that we finally could see some conflict within the Resistence.

I'm glad they went back to explaining the force like Yoda did originally. As this mystical energy field that is generated by every living thing and that holds the galaxy together. No pseudo-scientific explanations here. Midi...what? Midichlorians? Never heard of those.

Star Wars has a tradition of drawing clear moral lines. There is good and bad, the Jedi and the Sith, the force and its dark side. My personal interpretation is that Luke's statement that the Jedi need to die is a reckoning with the black and white thinking of the past. Obi-Wan once said, that only a Sith deals in absolutes but on more than one occasion the Jedi did this as well, when they for example said that someone who was once tempted by the dark side, can not be redeemed, or when Yoda said „do or do not. There is no try.“ The truth Luke learned was, that the force itself is amoral, and that both the Jedi and the Sith can be arrogant and ruthless in their actions. He is convinced that as long as Jedi exist, there will be people who get tempted by the dark side.

For the first time, not only in the expanded universe, but actually in a movie, so as canon as it an get, the Jedi's ideology is scrutinised. Not only that. It is questioned by Luke Skywalker himself.

We also learn that Rey's parents were complete nobodies. Kylo Ren however is the son of Han and Leia. He is the heir of both Skywalker and Solo, and yet he was tempted by the dark side, or rather in a morally grey area. The message could not be clearer. Heritage means nothing.

At that one scene where Rose keeps Finn from sacrificing himself to destroy this weapon of the First Order, I at first could not decide if it's brilliant or stupid. Sometimes, and especially to win a war, sacrifices are nessecary, but if everyone sacrifices themselves in order to survive it kinda defeats the purpose, so I can't help but agreeing with her.

If I have anything negative to say about it, I'd say that it could have been at least 30 minutes shorter. The Finn and Rose scenes as well as the final showdown have a pretty problematic pacing.

And yeah it is a little irritating how good Rey is with literally everything, from lightsaber fighting to using the force. Things that normally take years, she manages within a short amount of time, depending on how convenient it is for the plot. Many people already called her a Mary Sue character and I can see why.

But maybe this is the point. Luke in his exile shares some similarities with the protagonist of Friedrich Nietzsche's „Thus spoke Zarathustra“. They both live as eremits and they both in a way speak about the death of God, which stands for the fall of an old belief system leaving us in a state of nihilism.

If you look at it that way, Rey could be a quite literal representation of the Übermensch, a being that actively overcomes nihilism and leads humanity to a new moral system that is beyond the categories of good and evil from the Jedi's perspective. She is not a superhuman because she is extremely powerful but rather because she realises a deeper truth, that the force can not guide her to what's right or wrong and that she has to figure this out for herself.

But if we consider what happens in the final scene in which the children draw hope from the old stories about the Jedi, this theory either falls completely apart or the movie totally misunderstood what Nietzsche was trying to say.

What the movie did surprisingly well was that it deviates from everything that came before where it needed to do that, while keeping true to its legacy. It may not be perfect, but I prefer this over the prequel trilogy anytime.

[dalekofchaos]

Ways they could’ve handled Supreme Leader Snoke in the Last Jedi  and what they did instead

My other Sequel trilogy wasted potential posts

Rey

Finn

Poe

Rose

Luke

Han

Leia

Kylo Ren

Captain Phasma

Hux

List of ways they could’ve handled Snoke in TLJ

Show Snoke completing Kylo Ren’s training. SHow Snoke sending Kylo to Mustafar, Dathomir, Malachor and Moraband

Have Snoke give Kylo Ren one final test, killing his mother General Organa

Order Kylo Ren and the Knights Of Ren to Ach-To to kill Luke Skywalker and bring Rey to him

Show Snoke using Battle Meditation against The Resistance, while Leia uses BM against Snoke. Leia’s will against Snoke’s might over Ach-To, while Snoke is trying to kill Luke, Leia is trying to save her brother.

Make Snoke Darth Plagueis It makes sense and ties the three trilogies together.  Darth Plagueis was a powerful Sith Lord who could influence the midichlorians to create life and also save others from dying. He taught everything he knew to his apprentice, Sheev Palpatine (aka Darth Sidious), but he eventually lost his power and young Palpatine killed him in his sleep. How could Plagueis not foresee his own demise at the hands of his ambitious apprentice? Why did Plagueis suddenly “lose his power”? The truth is, he didn’t lose his power and he knew Sheev planned to kill him. It was part of the plan. By dying, I believe Darth Plagueis was able to transmit himself into Sheev and assume control of his body, almost like an infectious disease. Ever notice his name? Darth Plagueis. Plague, as in an infectious disease. Darth Plagueis unlocked the secret to immortality by moving from one body to the next, continuing his lifespan through multiple hosts over countless years. Ever wonder why Palpatine was so obsessed with training a powerful young apprentice? Surely he knew that one day the apprentice would want to overthrow him, so why train his own murderer? In Return of the Jedi, Emperor Palpatine continually provokes Luke to strike him down. Why would Palpatine want to be killed if the goal is longevity? Because Emperor Palpatine was assumed by Darth Plagueis and, through his death, he would then be able to transmit himself into a new host body. He wasn’t just looking for an apprentice, he was looking for a new body since Palpatine’s body was growing old. Luke Skywalker was meant to be the next host body for Darth Plagueis. But unfortunately for Plagueis, Darth Vader had a change of heart and defeated the Emperor. Snoke was Plagueis. It’s the only way to make things work. StarWars.com describes Snoke as a seeker of arcane and ancient lore, and the Last Jedi Visual Dictionary shows that he is a collector of rare memorabilia. At some point, Snoke must have found the wreckage of the Death Star on the forest moon Endor, and was infected by Darth Plagueis when he came upon the corpse of Palpatine. Did you ever wonder why Snoke thought it was so important to complete Kylo Ren’s training? It’s because Snoke was Darth Plagueis and he was training his next host body. Plagueis didn’t have a choice but to infect a really old political influencer like Snoke. Kylo was being groomed to become the next host body. Remember the infamous(ly terrible) scene in The Last Jedi where Snoke is “predicting” how Kylo Ren will kill Rey? Wasn’t it a little too obvious? Wouldn’t Snoke have been able to foresee Kylo’s treachery? See through his conflict? It’s because he wasn’t predicting Rey’s death, he predicted his own. He knew Kylo would kill him. He deliberately bullied and provoked Kylo in order to stir his anger into hatred to further fuel his dark side and lead him to completing his training. So let’s say Kylo puts on his ring for his official coronation as Supreme Leader and Plagueis take’s full possession of Kylo Ren, Plagueis had an apprentice who has fully cemented himself into the dark side and now a new and more powerful body. Darth Plagueis has everything he needs to way waste to the Resistance and the final destruction of the Jedi.

What they chose to do with Snoke instead

Snoke died pointlessly without doing anything with him. Supreme Leader Snoke is wasted and there is no reason to care now that the villain you’ve been building your trilogy around is dead. Snoke’s death was too soon. Snoke is a dark side user. Calm and collected. Old enough to see the rise and fall of the empire. He takes no risks and does what it takes to win. He was different from Palpatine and I dare say he even had potential to rival Kreia. He was a mastermind and did not allow himself to be a slave to the dark side. He did not want his apprentice to die like the Sith masters of old. He did not want to keep power until his dying breath. Snoke was not the average Sith Lord, he was different.  He was respectful, he was very powerful, and watching his scenes, even when faced with failure, he remained calm and collected because he was playing the long game and was not a slave to the Darkside like the Sith. He was invested in turning Kylo Ren into Vader’s heir and even has a ring from the catacombs of Vader’s castle. Snoke was so interesting, so many unanswered questions and this well thought out villain. And then TLJ turned him into a dumbed down Palpatine rip off. The claim that Snoke and his backstory is not important is dumb, considering that we know nothing on why this war is even happening or even why The First Order is doing ANYTHING! We want to know who Snoke is because we want to know how this random evil guy was able to destroy the lives of the entire original trio, corrupted Ben Solo and override the happy ending the entire original trilogy and prequels were fighting for. The struggles of the prequels, the clone wars, rebels, original trilogy, all of these stories and struggles were undone because of Snoke, so of course we have questions. Why do the remnants of the Empire follow Snoke and where did he come from? Not wanting to know the motivation of the villains is just plain ignorant. They completely wasted Snoke. Snoke is a power from the unknown regions. He was SO powerful that Palpatine sensed him, Palpatine was so focused and invested in Jakku in hopes of getting closer to the Unknown regions and he wanted to meet what he believed was the source of the dark side of the force. And they just kill him off so easy? Now there is no reason to care. Kylo Ren is not an intimidating villain and it’s pretty obvious he’s turning to the light in Episode IX. Hux is a bumbling incompetent fool and I’m pretty sure they already confirmed he will be more comedic in Episode IX instead of being a threat. There is a villain problem for the Sequel Trilogy. There is no menace in The First Order anymore and I really feel there is no reason to care.

Pointlessly tried to kill Rey instead of trying to turn her

“Your Snoke theory sucks” card is patronizing and insulting. God fucking forbid your audience is fucking invested in the story. God forbid we actually care about learning about the big bad of the sequel trilogy. God forbid we put more thought into Snoke than you did. “Your Snoke theory sucks” no Rian, your Snoke card sucks, your inability to do ANYTHING with Snoke sucks and talking down to us for caring about the direction of the big bad and killing him for no reason sucks. You arrogant piece of fucking shit.

Because Snoke was killed, they copped out and lied out their asses that it was always the plan to bring back Palpatine….bullshit. “oh but wait Snoke was a host body for Palpatine” BULLFUCKINGSHIT. Not originally. Snoke was someone who was supposed to be the darkness Palpatine was trying to get closer. Snoke was the man who destroyed 30 years of peace. He could’ve been anyone, hell even Darth Plagueis. But no, why create interesting characters when you can bring Palpatine back because it’s obvious you have no original ideas.

[corellian-smuggler]

THE LAST JEDI SPOILERS REACTION - SPOILERS BELOW

So as you may know, I made the enormous mistake of seeing The Last Jedi in theaters Thursday night. I don’t know what on earth I was thinking, because TFA left me angry and upset and all of the promo leading up to this film was horrific. But I reasoned that I would need to at least be informed--being on tumblr with everyone inevitably arguing about it and without having seen the film would have been miserable. I also wanted to see the movie without spoilers so that my opinions wouldn’t be influenced prior to viewing. But also, despite having very low expectations, I couldn’t help but have just the TINIEST hope that maybe it wouldn’t be quite as bad as I was anticipating? Maybe at least I would be able to enjoy the storylines of Rey, Finn, and Poe? Maybe Luke’s role wouldn’t be THAT bad? And of course, I wanted to see Carrie Fisher in her final film.

As a result, I found myself in the theater with my twin brother, reasonably pessimistic but just the tiniest bit--despite myself--hopeful.

I have never suffered so much during a film in my entire life. There were multiple moments that made me consider getting up and walking out.

If you don’t want spoilers, DO NOT CONTINUE READING, because I am about to detail exactly why I was so upset.

1. The blatant assassination of Luke Skywalker’s character. Yes, he dies at the end of the film, but they killed him long before that. I don’t know who I was supposed to be seeing onscreen, but it was NOT Luke Skywalker. I’m starting with this because it was, in my opinion, the biggest, and most inexcusable transgression made by Rian Johnson (though don’t worry, there are multiple very close runners-up!). I started crying because of what was happening in front of me. First of all, the fact that Luke’s “first instinct” upon sensing the conflict in his nephew was evidently to ignite his lightsaber to kill him is without fail the most disgusting obliteration of a character I’ve ever witnessed. Who wrote this script??? Did they just not ever watch the original trilogy? The entire point of Luke’s character was his REFUSAL TO GIVE UP ON PEOPLE, and his UNWAVERING DEDICATION TO HIS FAMILY, and his INSISTENCE that his father could be saved. Did they miss the fact that even though Vader had ALREADY murdered countless innocent people and served the Emperor and aided in the establishment of a tyrannical, oppressive fascist regime, Luke’s IMMEDIATE reaction was “I won’t fight him, he’s my father, I have to save him.” Did they miss the part where Luke chose to THROW AWAY HIS LIGHTSABER rather than give in to fear and hatred and violence, even if it meant his father killing him? Even if it meant the rebellion’s demise? Did they miss the part where Luke’s FAITH--in humanity, in his family, in the Jedi and the Light Side of the Force--IS THE ENTIRE PURPOSE OF HIS CHARACTER?? THE ENTIRE PURPOSE OF STAR WARS?? THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY?!?! THE TRIUMPH OF FAITH, WITH LUKE BEING THE VERY EMBODIMENT OF IT????? And for some reason I’m suppose to sit there and believe that Luke’s first impulse in sensing the “conflict” in Ben--his own nephew, who hadn’t even done anything bad yet--was to KILL HIM??? To kill HAN AND LEIA’S CHILD?!?!?!?! What the ever loving FUCK kind of travesty is that? Character assassination doesn’t even seem an adequate term for what this is.

And that’s just ONE PART OF IT. There’s also the fact that his nephew and Snoke are running around DESTROYING THE GALAXY and BLOWING UP PLANETS and Luke is THE ONLY PERSON IN THE GALAXY WHO CAN DEFEAT THEM, and he DOESN’T CARE. Rey literally shows up and tells him that Leia is begging for his help, that there are two powerful Dark Side Force wielders that they’re powerless to fight, and that Han is DEAD. And Luke doesn’t fucking care. Sorry, but a Luke Skywalker who doesn’t race off to help his loved ones is not Luke Skywalker at all. Once again, this is 100% entirely and completely incompatible with all three films of the OT. Add to that the fact that Luke spends the entire first 2/3 of the film bitterly sneering at himself--about how stupid he was, mocking the very notion of Luke Skywalker as a hero, shitting all over the Jedi, calling himself a vain, ignorant failure... It honestly felt like a personal attack. It was literally the way that angry, dangerous male Star Wars fans who insist that the rebels were terrorists and glorify the Empire and say that the Jedi were no better than the Sith talk about Luke: with spite and disdain and cruelly irreverent, angry scorn designed to cow and hurt the people who think of Luke and the rebels as heroes. Except it wasn’t some reddit post. It was happening onscreen and coming out of Luke’s own mouth.

I honestly, truly do not understand how any fan of the original trilogy could ever think that Luke Skywalker would be tempted to murder his nephew, or turn his back on the Jedi, or be unwilling to go to Leia after learning Han is DEAD, or just not care about the fact that without his intervention, billions of people would die or be enslaved. I was literally crying tears of fury and horror and disbelief and grief. And then, what? He has 5 seconds of remorse and uses the Force to project himself across the galaxy to buy time for the resistance, and then he just? Dies? 

What the fuck was the point of having him be in the movies, then? What was the point of including him in the films if all that they wanted him for was to destroy his legacy, make him out to be a coward, rip every single thing that was ever true about Luke Skywalker to shreds, and then give him a quick “redemption” and kill him off like he was nothing? He just fucking dies off on that island after years of hiding from his problems, and even at the very end insisting to Leia that he won’t try to save Ben, that he’s not a hero, that he’s nothing? I am just, so angry that my anger is the only thing standing between me and utter devastation. I literally watched Rian Johnson murder Luke Skywalker and piss on his grave. He did everything in his power to kill any notions that anyone had of Luke Skywalker as the hero he is.

2. Kylo Ren apologism. This was easily the second biggest thing I had a problem with. First and foremost, the fact that they had the AUDACITY to write off his fall to the Dark Side on LUKE SKYWALKER OF ALL PEOPLE. They were so desperate to make him “sympathetic” and “relatable”--and to contrive some bullshit reason for Luke to be in exile--that they decided to make LUKE be at fault?!?! It wasn’t enough that they had to imply in interviews that Han and Leia were “neglectful,” now they also have to tell us that Luke was trying to murder him? First of all, that still doesn’t excuse mass murder, let’s just be clear on that. NOTHING they could have written would have been a valid excuse for what Kylo Ren has done. Nothing would make it “ok” or understandable. 

So once again, the writers have gone out of their way to make one of the OT heroes look like a piece of shit for the sake of the new characters, no matter what a disservice it is to the original trilogy, to the fans who love it, and to the characters who MAKE Star Wars STAR WARS. I literally wish I could look Kathleen Kennedy and Rian Johnson in the eyes and demand that they try to explain themselves. I wish I could look them in the eyes and ask how they could have EVER thought it was acceptable to suggest that Luke “failed” his nephew, that he tried to kill him. I want to ask them to explain to Star Wars fans why they thought it was ok to sacrifice Luke Skywalker to the Kylo Ren storyline--to destroy Luke to create that monster.

And that’s not even speaking of the fact that they are literally asking the audience to sympathize with a fascist murderer. Half of the movie was trying to get viewers to “rethink” what they thought they knew about Kylo Ren, to see that it wasn’t his fault, that it was awful LUKE who tried to kill him, and what would we have done? Kylo Ren aids in blowing up billions of innocent people. He orders the death of a whole village of innocent people. He serves the supreme overlord of a paramilitary organization bent on conquering and enslaving the galaxy. He might not be officially Sith, but he IS the Dark Side, which is, in case the writers forgot, a PERVERSION of the Force and pure EVIL. How DARE Rian Johnson, in a reality where we turn on the news daily to find school shooters (which Kylo Ren has done), terrorist attacks (which Kylo Ren has participated in), rapists (which Kylo Ren has symbolically done), racists (Kylo Ren aids a racist military regime), and entitled, wrathful white pissbabies (which Kylo Ren is), and ask us to SYMPATHIZE with the embodiment of ALL of those things??? How can he dare expect us to have empathy for this man? And at the expense of LUKE SKYWALKER? 

And then there’s the fact that not once, but TWICE Kylo Ren is referred to as “just a boy,” first by Snoke and then by Luke. Funny, Kylo Ren was a grown man when he destroyed the Jedi Order, when last I checked. But please, tell me again how he’s only a CHILD, just like society does every time any twenty/thirty-something white man rapes/kills/shoots people. Snoke also says that Kylo Ren has “too much of Han Solo’s heart” in him. Now, granted this is coming from Snoke, so it was most likely just to manipulate and torment Kylo Ren, but nevertheless, as it was consistent with the near constant theme of infantilizing and humanizing Kylo Ren, it ENRAGED ME. Kylo Ren has not one single SLIVER of Han Solo’s heart in him. If he did, he would never have joined the Dark Side, or the remnants of the Empire. He would never have murdered countless people in cold blood. He would never have participated in a genocide. He would never have tortured innocent civilians. He would never have KILLED HIS FATHER or have ordered his army to KILL HIS MOTHER. Kylo Ren is NOTHING like Han Solo.

The forced romance with Rey and Kylo was absurd. First of all, I swear to you there are countless shitty fanfics that did this exact same fucking premise of the Force connection--right down to the lack of clothes--so literally we were fed bad fanfiction. Kylo Ren tortured Rey, killed her mentor before her eyes, mortally wounded her only friend, terrified her, invaded her mind while taunting her that he could take whatever he wanted and could invade all her private thoughts and feelings in a scene heavily coded as a metaphorical rape, and almost killed her in the last film. And yet, we’re supposed to believe that because, oh, that’s right, LUKE APPARENTLY TRIED TO KILL KYLO REN, that just excuses all those things Ren did to her and now she has romantic feelings for him? Someone please call up all the women in the world who have been beaten or raped and tell them about something traumatic that had happened in their abuser’s past; they’ll be sure to have romantic feelings for them then!!!! The scene where he had his shirt off?! As though he’s some desirable heartthrob eye candy, and not a WHINY, ENTITLED FASCIST DARK SIDE MURDERER and the VILLAIN of the franchise???? It was sickening.

And yet, I’m not even sure what any of it was trying to accomplish? They went through all that trouble to woobify him and make him “sympathetic” (*derisive snort*), but then he still ended up succeeding Snoke as the new Emperor 2.0 and establishing himself as DECIDEDLY evil, even heartlessly ordering the death of his own mother, and Luke AND LEIA now both said that he can’t be redeemed. So what was the point of all that woobification??? Because now rey will try to redeem him in IX? Yeah, hard pass on that, thanks.

Someone please explain to me why they are literally plot point for plot point giving Rey Luke’s exact story, but also at the same time ripping that story away from Luke as though he hadn’t already done it all before? 

3. Rey as a result was entirely unlikable in the film. I went from enjoying her character in the last movie despite all the film’s flaws and the fact that they destroyed Han, Luke, and Leia for her sake, to simply hating her. She came across as ridiculously stupid--walking straight back into the custody of the First Order mere days after having escaped, because now she’s in love with the man who violated and tortured her and killed her father figure and blew up multiple planets? Wtf? And not only that, but what had been a feminist achievement--a female protagonist of a Star Wars film--was turned into a young woman “understanding” the pain of a fascist murderer and “fixing him” with her love. But failing? So again..... what was the point? To make Rey look stupid? Well, they succeeded. It basically just felt like Rian Johnson getting away with putting his own weird sexual fantasies onscreen as much as he could get away with.

4. Finn and Rose were entirely irrelevant. Finn was BLATANTLY demoted from co-protagonist to supporting role, and his side-plot with Rose was so sloppily done that it was obvious his character was an afterthought at best. But we know why that is (racism. It’s because racism). Their little side-trip to casino planet was visually incompatible with the rest of the Star Wars films, rushed, poorly executed, and, above all else, entirely pointless. They accomplished literally nothing and would have died had it not been for Whatsherface Holdo. And that kiss at the end was so out of nowhere that I was literally in disbelief. They’d literally only known each other for a few hours, and yet somehow we’re already having talk of “saving what we love” and kissing???? It was so uncomfortable and fell so flat and was so obviously only included to shove Finn out of the way so that Rey could want Kylo Ren and try to soothe his Man PainTM. Because, once again, racism. Finn’s entire sequence of waking up, by the way, serving as cheap, demeaning comedy at his expense, was weird and unnecessary. Someone please explain to me why they needed to have him walk around base naked and squirting water all over the place? What even was that? Another moment that didn’t feel like it belonged in a Star Wars movie. Oh, and his being framed once again as a traitor and a deserter for trying to get off the ship in the escape pod. Uh, hey so, pretty sure Finn isn’t ENLISTED and therefore he wasn’t DESERTING, first of all, and second of all, pretty sick of this trend of making the heroes look like cowards while trying to make the villains look like victims.

5. Just general bad writing, mischaracterization and sloppy work. Literally nothing happened for the whole movie. The resistance ran away from the First Order for like two hours of screen time while Luke milked alien animal titty and sneered at Rey and refused to help his sister. Then the resistance almost escaped but didn’t and had to keep running away. Then the resistance almost escaped again but didn’t and had to keep running away again. And then they again were almost safe but weren’t, and finally had to run away for good. It was so underwhelming that I literally couldn’t even believe it was approved. Who signed off on this? The whole thing was just a ship running away from another ship with lots of mentions of “almost out of fuel!!!!” and then getting in a different ship to keep fleeing. 

Also, Leia did literally NOTHING in the whole movie except almost die, slap Poe in the face, stun Poe, and look sad. So? K cool. Also they made it a point to say that they were broadcasting a distress call with Princess Leia’s personal code “because people believe in Leia,” but then they said the distress call was received and ignored by their allies. Indicating that no one actually believes in or cares enough about Princess fucking Leia to go to her aid. Because they just really had to drive in the knife that the OT characters are irrelevant and sad distortions of what they once were. Oh, and as a result evidently the First Order was able to blow up multiple planets and no one else in the galaxy tried to stand up and stop them from trying to take power?

Poe for some reason was characterized as this trigger happy, impulsive, irresponsible hothead who blundered around a lot and almost got the resistance destroyed multiple times and then this was never resolved. He just kept blundering until the end when Rey lifted the boulders for their escape. So, AGAIN, making the heroes look bad for no reason.

That Holdo character was so dumb I don’t even understand????? Why couldn’t she just tell the resistance what the plan was???? Literally they were all on a ship running out of fuel and thinking she was planning to just keep running til they ran out of gas and all got blown up. That entire nonsense situation wouldn’t have happened if she had just told the people whose lives were in her hands that she wasn’t just giving them up for dead. And if she was planning to die herself anyways, why didn’t she lightspeed at the First Order sooner? And how did a collision at light speed not obliterate the entire ship? How the hell did Finn and Rose walk away from that? So sloppy, so many plot holes there.

All that build-up to Snoke and he was irrelevant and now dead. They literally just presented us with the half-baked Emperor rip-off and then said “nah JK” and disposed of him. He was entirely pointless. Why not just start off the trilogy with Kylo Ren as the Supreme Leader, then, for all the effect that Snoke had (none) on the story?

Rey went “straight to the Dark Side” while meditating and was sneaking around with Kylo Ren and Luke didn’t trust her motivations at all, but then Yoda just appears and says that Rey already knows everything she needs to know about being a Jedi without Luke needing to teach her (um, what? how? Two days prior she didn’t even know what the Force even was?) and then that’s just magically resolved and she’s just now somehow all good to take up the mantle of the last jedi in the galaxy? Despite her overt foray into the Dark Side, which was seemingly without remorse? Despite the fact that she legit didn’t have a single second of training other than Luke telling her “the Force binds all living things and the Jedi shouldn’t have fucked with it”? Also, how could she do a Jedi mind trick without trying? How could she levitate stones without training? How could she best Luke with no training? Entirely inconsistent with the previous two trilogies, as was every word that came out of Yoda’s and Luke’s mouths. And then Snoke calling her a Jedi? SHE WASN’T A JEDI!!!! 

Leia saying “I changed my hair” as her first words to Luke? What the hell was that? I understand that it was a nod at what Han said to her in VII, but it was out of place and wrong. She should have run to him and hugged, like she did every single other time they reunited in the OT. 

The whole thing about Luke’s death being at peace seemed like they needed Rey and Leia to explain it to the audience, because otherwise no one would get it because it made no sense. Also the way they lowkey implied that Luke had finally gotten “purpose” with his death, as if he hadn’t already had purpose BEFORE when he was SAVING THE WHOLE GALAXY???? As if Luke needed to be redeemed???? Why was I given a story in which Luke Skywalker, the HERO, was in need of a redemption? And am I to understand that he just, exerted himself to death? Uh, ok......? Where’s that meme of Padme saying “Guess I’ll die” when you need it?

Also why was the ancestral Skywalker family lightsaber calling to Rey if she’s not related to them (assuming that Kylo Ren was telling the truth)? Why was she seeing Luke in her dreams? Because she’s “The chosen one”? Didn’t we already HAVE a chosen one? And speaking of that... wasn’t that supposed to have brought balance to the Force? And it... didn’t?

I’m glad that Luke legit asked who the fuck Rey was to be the one to be sent to him, because that made literally no sense whatsoever.

The scenes were cutting all over the place and felt choppy. The pacing was rushed and the plot forced in many places. The tone was all over the place. The humor was inappropriate and fell flat. It visually did not look like Star Wars. In fact, I felt like Rian Johnson did everything in his power to give us a movie that was as un-Star Wars-like as possible.

6. Somehow also an awful rehash of Empire Strikes Back?? If you were paying attention to the plot, it’s not hard to figure out that they were trying to subtly give us Empire Strikes Back in disguise. Film starts with the evacuation of the rebel--oops sorry, resistance base. Proceed to have two of our main heroes being pursued by the Empire across the galaxy, while the Force Sensitive Protagonist is off trying to persuade the Exiled Jedi Master to train her, and he doesn’t want to. Then she ventures into a Dark Side cave and has a disturbing (and just weird?) vision. Then, while Secondary Heroes try to outrun the Empire First Order, she convinces the Exiled Jedi to train her against his best judgment, but she has More Force Visions of her friends of the man whose dick she seemingly wants to suck and so she Leaves Exile Planet to go have a Confrontation with the Evil Force User where she learns a revelation about her parents and is invited to join the Dark Side but Makes An Escape. Then more fleeing from the Empire First Order. Then she rejoins the other lead characters in time to Escape Again, with some slight deviation from the plot--jumping ahead for Luke to die à la Yoda at the beginning of ROTJ, just as she reached her “Dagobah” a film early, as well.

They literally tried to sell us the exact same movie--but they used the same template with all the wrong actual content. They made a cheap knock-off of ESB and filled it with a Luke Skywalker in disgrace, a protagonist flirting (in more ways than one) with the Dark Side, the normalization of the Dark Side, and the destruction of central Star Wars themes.

So, all in all, they are simply reselling the original trilogy but also undoing the original trilogy and assassinating Han, Luke, and Leia as they go. I left the theater the instant the credits rolled. The ONLY positive thing I can say about it is that Mark and Carrie (RIP, she was hard to watch) gave good performances, even though their characters were ruined. I am heartbroken and obviously very angry. I am aware that this was supposed to be a review but became instead an angry rant, but I am as unapologetic of that fact as is Rian Johnson for what he’s done. In my opinion, Star Wars is irrevocably destroyed. The damage following VII was considerable, but this film just really took the cake. This is not my Star Wars, and I will never make the mistake of seeing another Star Wars movie again.

[swan2187]

Show, Don’t Tell: Hope

I keep seeing gifsets and quotes from The Last Jedi talking about how “the rebellion doesn’t die today--it is reborn” and “Hope!” and reviews mentioning the hope that we find in the very end...and I just sit there thinking “Where?”

Because for a movie that is supposed to be about hope (the theme of every Star Wars movie since ever), it does a really pathetic job of providing it. They can talk about it all they want, they can pretend that there are reasons to be optimistic about the future (besides, you know, the fact that these are movies and good is going to defeat evil simply because it’s a narrative mandate, maybe), but if you don’t show me a reason to be hopeful, I’m not going to feel it. You can’t just say “be hopeful!”, you have to illustrate it.

And since this movie wanted to be Empire Strikes Back so badly, let’s look at the glorious classic film and see what it did right.

The first true moment of Hope in Empire comes with the infamous line: “The first transport is away! The first transport is away!” We are treated to a dramatic scene of a menacing Star Destroyer approaching the planet, then a calm woman giving the fire command to a massive ion cannon, which fires several rounds into space and disables an entire Star Destroyer with three shots. 

We watch the transport soar past, the music of John Williams swells, and the call goes out: “The first transport is away!”

The men cheer! The rebellion lives! We won!

...then the battle itself takes place, and suddenly, rebels are dying. Speeders are exploding. The base is collapsing. Space is still thick with star destroyers, TIE fighters roar after our heroes, and worried generals start talking about how much more desperate their situation is becoming. Even though the transports are away, even though the rebellion is surviving, it is still obvious that the rebels are dying. Throughout the rest of the movie, we focus on our main characters as they struggle to elude the Empire--and fail. 

Then at last, we come to the end of the movie. Luke’s training has lost him his hand and his lightsaber, Han is gone, the Rebel fleet is scattered, and everyone is sad. 

But Lando still smiles as he punches in the commands on the Falcon’s controls. “We’ll find Han. I promise.” Though Han is lost, they’re on their way to rescue him. You can still find that spark of hope.

Luke, Leia, Threepio, and Artoo are together. Leia and Luke are worried, they’re shaken, there is no medal ceremony or applauding crowd, but there is a beacon of light in the distance--the light of the galaxy, the light of hope. They stare into the light of billions of suns, quiet, concerned, but perhaps daring to feel a slight twinge of hope. John Williams does his thing...

...and we watch the Rebel fleet swinging off into deep space. The Rebellion lives on. Hope lives on. We know this entire fleet is no match for the Super Star Destroyer that’s still out there, but it could be enough. There’s more to come. There are still so many of them.

Now let’s compare this to The Last Jedi.

In this movie, we watched the Rebels escape at the beginning...only to be tracked down again. We watched them run and slowly fall, one ship at a time, to the inexorable, irresistible First Order fleet, until there was one ship left. Then, our heroes Finn and Rose returned to save the fleet--but their mission was betrayed, and once again, failure occurred. Transports began being blown up--all of the optimism we felt at Holdo’s escape plan was dashed by fresh attacks. Then, Holdo did the one thing to save everyone: blew herself up and most of the First Order fleet. 

And that was amazing, don’t get me wrong.

But the First Order still had more ships. The Supremacy still flew, even without half of its structure. They brought the hammer down on the dying Resistance with its clunky remaining speeders. The Resistance put out the call for help--but no one was coming.

Not “no one is going to get here”--”No one is coming.” They slowly accepted that hope was gone and the war war over...but then, Luke Skywalker appears! He saves the day! He stands alone against the army, and promises that hope is reborn! The Resistance lives, and there is a future!

...and then he just goes and dies.

They frame it with the hope of the binary sunset, we see our heroes all escaping on the ship--one ship--and we hear hope! Joy! We made it! Finn and Rey are together!

But then...that’s it. There’s no rebel fleet at the end, there’s no promise to bring Luke back, there’s nothing except a quiet assurance that Luke was happy when he passed on, and the crushing loneliness of Kylo Ren. Also, Rey has the books (that were...apparently just books? Not that important? Disparaged by our mentors, Luke and Yoda?). A little white boy in the middle of nowhere shows off his Force Powers.

The First Order still has hyperspace tracking. They still have fleets of Star Destroyers. They still have Kylo Ren. They still have the six Knights of Ren. The galaxy is being conquered by Nazis. What we saw at the start of The Force Awakens--villagers being rounded up and massacred--that’s happening everywhere. There was no hint of a power vacuum in Snoke’s death, no hint of further resistance throughout the galaxy...Carrie Fisher is dead, so we don’t know what Leia can do in the next movie...the Rebel fleet is gone, the Republic fleet is gone, the First Order still has all of the worlds they came from, Luke is gone...so where’s the hope coming from?

Are we supposed to trust that they can do it? This entire movie spent its time repeatedly belaboring that your hope means nothing. You want to take down a dreadnought with some really cool bombers? Too bad, all the bombers are going to blow themselves up. You want to escape to hyperspace? Nah, they can track you. You think Rey can bring Kylo back from the Dark Side? Nope, he’s just doing this because he belongs to the Dark Side. You think DJ is going to help save the fleet? No, he sold you all out. You think Luke lives? Nope. Time and again, the movie dangles hope on the end of a string and pulls it away...so why should the end be any different?

[mantra4ia]

The Last Jedi: Hopes / Reactions / Afterthoughts / IX

spoilers lie ahead

What I hoped for:

I didn’t come in with a ton of expectation because I didn’t want to ruin the film for myself with inner monologue ficlets. That said, the things I wanted…

A snapshot of Young-Young Ben Solo - more than just the near death flashback with Kylo and Luke where we get a one-sided tale, then another, and somewhere in the middle we find the truth - to balance out the Force Vision in TFA of Young Rey being pawned on Jakku. I’m not too broken up about this not being fulfilled because I appreciate the cut of this film. The reason I think it shoulda-woulda-coulda been important is because what I’ve been reading from Adam Driver’s acting choices opposite Daisy Ridley and his dare-I-say-empathy for her isolation is that even though Kylo is going after power unabashedly now, I don’t think that’s how it always was. I feel like maybe Ben felt somehow abandoned by Leia and Han to his uncle Luke’s training, and therefore young Ben would have been gratifying to see for a minute, just to see whether or not he wanted to be trained or went with reluctance and insecurity and therefore shares another layer with Rey.

Knowing Rey’s parentage - I’m actually really satisfied that Rey’s acceptance played out a) culminating with Kylo and b) that her parents are just a pair of grifters who traded her for a portion or other (granted SW has a long-standing precedent of cloak and dagger lineage herrings). In this instance regardless of speculation, I don’t think Kylo lied to Rey because of this moment has really been simmering slowly from the start of TFA based on what Rey already feels (kind of like she’s known all along) and what Maz Kenyata told her in TFA to the effect of there’s nothing left for you looking back, they’re not coming back, and poetically from Rey’s own introduction. Her first interaction is trading scrap for rations, and in her Force vision it sounds like the voice of the same scrap merchant that she barters with is restraining her, like she has indeed been indentured to him.

Force Ghosts - game, set, light it up Yoda! This one was really an intuitive ace, but it was better than I anticipated.

Rey undergoing some formal training whether from Luke or elsewhere, and begin to form opinions on the Force. Here’s where I’m kind of salty. I don���t think Luke’s 3 lessons for Rey were enough (I could have blinked and missed them) to test her/ push her hard / sweat her physically, which is what I wanted and what I still hope for in IX - although VIII did a good job putting Rey through the ropes mentally/psychologically. I want to really see her Force acuity and find insight into how deep it goes and why, but that said I like that Last Jedi put Rey through a lot more informal life lesson training hand in hand with and by Kylo.

I would have liked a bit more time spent on Luke reflecting on his friendship with Han Solo (the first question out of his mouth was “where’s Han?” for goodness sake), but those dice were really a great touch…

Stakes set high - holy Kenobi did TLJ deliver. There were a couple weird pace moments with the space retreat, at times it felt urgent and other times it felt like watching the longest deep space car chase in slo-mo. But what I will say is the Paige Tiko scene wins at setting the bar for how VERY not good things are going for the rebels.

More of General Organa - We did get this in a big way and I dig it to the depths. Yoda, can you imagine all the opportunities you might have had schooling Leia in the Force?!

The tag team up:  I really loved the fight in the throne room and the ‘light’ reveal that turned out to really be the ‘dark’ reveal, not only because of the Rey / Kylo dynamic but also because of the strong emotional similarities between Kylo and Luke that came to fruition for me as an audience member while watching the Guard getting leveled. 

What I got that I didn’t even know I wanted!

Sassy Yoda: oh my God he’s such a salty troll, I love that Star Wars is really weird and strange in this film and I loved when Yoda blew up the temple tree. “Page turners they were not” is perfection.

Curmudgeon/Sass master Luke: “Laser sword” and “Everything you said was wrong” is smart, breaking the 4th wall ish commentary. His shtick with ‘reach out’ and the reed of grass while training Rey was awesome. Also, I kind of like him throwing the lightsaber when Rey first gives it to him. Yes it is precious to fans. Yes it was once precious to him, through its connection with Ben Kenobi and his father Darth Vader. But Luke’s been through decades of failure and heartbrek and loss - he’s allowed to be less precious and more jaded. However “see you around kid” was a nice touch, along with his interaction with C3PO and R2 to round out his softer, youthful nature.

Speaking of - R2 not fighting fair with the originally Leia/Obiwan message - expertly done, very character driven.

Failure: I never thought I could see so many plans go sideways (Finn and Rose in the casino, Poe’s almost mutiny, Rey’s #SaveBenSolo plan) or almost sideways (bombing the Dreadnaught, the resistance escape PlanetSide) in a Star Wars movie just like real life.

The evolution of force powers. More on this further down,

Meh - Things that I didn’t like as much:

The beginning Poe humor, on hold for Hux, only because he’s not Harrison Ford/Han Solo, and the execution takes me out of ‘a long time ago in a galaxy far far away’ and smacks me with the present. Good humor attempts, though not all of them were necessary or stuck the landing.

Useless Hux: make this dude more menacing or at least more troublesome to Kylo. He had the potential to be an interesting character and now I feel like he’s just the butt of jokes.

The Porgs: I liked them, but used in such a way to sell toys they were.

Canto Bight: I see the purpose this planet-side excursion served to introduce us to the young, oppressed, and force attuned, and to galvanize Finn truly finding a place of belonging as “Rebel scum!” and I find the war profiteering angle very interesting. However, there’s a two-fold problem in the Casino arc apart from the fact that the lapel pin on the code breaker felt Bond, not Star Wars: we didn’t really spend enough time there to explore the corruption, creatures, etc, and I didn’t really want to given the pace of the rest of the film. So it just became a rushed side story which didn’t do the film or Canto any favors.. It might make a good short story, but I would much rather have had Rose, who’s very savvy, try to be a could breaker herself than her and Finn seeking one out.

Benicio Del Toro’s character: I liked his lines (they get you today, you get him tomorrow) and his concept as a neutral profiteer, I just don’t think they integrated him into the story well. I don’t care for him as a codebreaker, I think he should have just been a weapon’s dealer Maz connected them to just smuggle Rose and Finn onto the ship, and it would still set up the double cross

Rose’s crush on Finn: I like the line that accompanies the crush, “it’s not destroying what you hate but saving what you love” however the fact that these feelings pop up in the last act so abruptly mid battle is jarring and out of place.

Back to the throne room: Despite the fact that I adored this moment, it made me realize a couple things. 1) I wish the guard had roughed Kylo and Rey up just a little more, being that they are an elite anti-Jedi force. 2) I think that if the Force could manifest, it really would smack / have had it with both Ben and Rey the moment they split Luke/Anakin’s lightsaber. I mean together they could be in / reflect the Force balance but after all this time we’re always still stuck in human constructed light and dark mentalities like nah, forget balance when we could be right. Aggggh, the Force must be so done. 3) There are strong emotional similarities between Kylo and Luke at the very end of the scene when Kylo implores Rey to join him that I wish the film would have played on more in the final dual between the two Skywalkers. For about half the film they think more or less identically: let the past die, kill it if you have to (Luke essentially saying let me die, let the Jedi religion die, let the hubris die, Kylo saying let the emotional tethers be severed, the mistakes buried, and archaic rules be destroyed because I was only ever taught that they must be obeyed but not why, however both arguments are sides of the same coin). Luke turns out of that spiral only through the help of his friends, and I wish Luke had managed to spell out the connection to his former pupil, instead of just being a target of ire for Kylo and paraphrasing to Leia “I’m here to confront him, not bring him home.” Because for me there’s a moment at the end of the fight with the Guard where I hesitated because it did not seem like Kylo was automatically going to stay with the Dark. He ended Snoke, and I subjectively thought Kylo wants to wash his hands of both the old hierarchies - again let the past die - and strike out new with Rey (albeit still power-seeking, but not necessarily aligned with a side) when he said “please” as beseechingly as he did. Because during that fight Kylo was so in tune with Rey he seemed for once smooth and in balance, and only when she says “no" did I sense him make a decision to switch tracks to “Rey killed Snoke and I’m Supreme Leader now.” But at that pivotal moment, I don’t think being a sole leader is what Kylo wanted, even if that meant he was supreme. I’m probably wrong, but that’s what I took from Adam Driver’s choice with the character, and I wanted Luke to take one last psychological crack at Ben through that shared mentality.

Things I hope IX will address and questions I had from TLJ:

Will we time jump ahead a few years? Will we deal with Carrie Fisher’s untimely passing by showing Leia’s funeral? When I think of a Star Wars processional I have got to say one of the things the prequels did well was Padme’s funeral, and I imagine it would be a touching, iconic visual to have an onscreen parallel with General Organa, but depending on the state of the Resistance and whether or not they’re still in tatters when the curtain rises on the next episode, I don’t think we’re going to see it on screen. That said, if there is a formal funeral assembly, I’d like it to serve the dual purpose of marking her passing as well as the response to the distress signal at the end of TLJ by introducing us to some of the new generation of force sensitive people in attendance. I think it would be poetic, if executed well, for her funeral to also be that focal point where the galaxy answers the call. 

Luke Skywalker, force ghost? - Well he did say “See you around kid.” I think it would be interesting if Luke ‘haunts’ the hell out of Ben in IX in some way, like the weeds of a conscience. I think it is almost necessary to have Luke more involved since Carrie Fisher passed. I would also love to see the Force Ghost of Ben Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, because Obi is Ben’s namesake I should think, and Anakin was for so long his idol, and it’s about time to give these two actors (Ewan and Hayden) a shot outside the prequels i.m.h.o.

Rey and the training of new Jedi - I would like to see Rey create a new text of lessons for the Jedi order to accompany the old artifacts she stole as she gathers, maybe not necessarily formally trains, a new generation of the Force attune. And, apart from broom kid, I would love to see a range in age and walks of life for those Jedi, plucked from their daily routine with “non-traditional” arcs to their training in the same vein as Luke, if we see the training aspect at all. 

Give me the Knights of Ren - pleeeeeease!

Will Kylo take an Apprentice as the new Supreme Leader like precedence has set before him? I hesitate to give a solid yes for three reasons: a) based on his pitch to Rey, Kylo really pushes back on the old ways on principle alone, so I think the idea of an apprentice is somewhat repugnant to him, and it would be hard for him to have an apprentice until he is fully in control of himself and his Young-Anakin-esque rage. Based on the end of VIII, some time needs to pass for Kylo to become controlled, calculated leader, willing to share without deep mistrust of others, and rightly so given the journey that has made him Kylo Ren. b) I think he’s also a bit Rey-or-bust at this point because when he felt that tether to her at the end of VIII and she rebuked him it may have soured him to a future pupil. c) I think Kylo will be impacted by Luke in this aspect above all others, by which I mean determined to be a better ‘master’ than Luke was to him. However I think one or more of three things will undermine Kylo should he take on a pupil. Either he will have frustrations with the traditions of mentorship and/or the recollection of Rey’s refusal that will come out misdirected at his apprentice and create tension between them, and/or Hux will be a poisonous whisper in his apprentice’s ear, and/or my favorite imagined scenario is that Kylo senses the pull of light in his apprentice and he is trapped in the internal struggle that’s not “do I kill him” because that’s too easy to answer, but rather of “do I snuff out the light, even if that puts me eye to eye with uncle Luke, the man I say I hate, the man I don’t want to be Or do I risk the alternative.” I think Kylo might* take an apprentice (55/45), but if he does it will be his undoing. 

Will there be redemption by deed, by consequence, or by death for Kylo? Is there no redemption possible? Your guess is as good as mine, but I think Adam Driver said it best - and at the core of it this is why I have always loved antagonistic characters. Paraphrasing: Evil for it’s own sake is very flat. At the risk of sounding cliche, I don’t think Kylo sees himself as evil, and when I play him I don’t see myself that way but rather but as right. In the same sense, I think that stories without the hope of redemption are boring by comparison to the alternative. And I think that if Kylo doesn’t think in terms of good and evil, but right and wrong, then he already thinks like Rey. It’s only a matter of getting him to consider for a moment the possibility that he is wrong which could set tide of the Force into motion to rock him.

Who, if any, will reinforce the small 10-ish man Resistance that are left? Are there other factions against the First Order that will back them? I’m firmly in the #LandoforIX camp, and what other non-Rebel  civilian aid might evolve the Resistance that’s now presumably under Poe’s leadership.

State of the Galaxy in IX? Divisions / factions starting to form in the First Order maybe, courtesy of Hux. I don’t know, there are so many rich options.

Also, side note, I hope they revisit Maz Kenata’s line from TFA in the next Episode where she says “same eyes…different people” because I think there’s more to play with and more full circle yet to come, and I was surprised how little that character was featured and how her line didn’t come up in some form in The Last Jedi.

Lastly, I love broom kid, because that’s the spark catching. For as many times as they said spark in the film, the spark is only good if it takes hold onto something. Yes it was Disney, but it served a purpose. I hope we see him again.

The new force projection/visitation power: was it always there and Jedi masters never used it (that would make for a few plot holes), or because the Force is referred to as a religion and, to the best of my knowledge, is living/organic/natural (lots of pastors will speak similarly of the Bible), is this a natural development that the Force recently evolved as a product of time? Also, have force ghosts always been able to blow stuff up, because if so than ghosts of many Jedi should have had a field day.

I’m a little worried about IX having a new set of writers because I want continuity and most important when it comes to Star Wars I want story and spectacle to live in balance (yes, I am directing that concern toward JJ). I want poetry that gives me the feeling of SW without repeating old stories word for word. In short I want more Rian Johnson, but I’ll cross my heart and my lightsaber laser swords for Abrams, Trevorrow and Connolly.

Okay, now I’ve got to go read all the books so that I can actually converse informatively.

[novahawk9]

The power in the dialogue in Orginal Trilogy is just mindblowing. Everything the characters say builds towards something, in addition to being ferociously IN CHARACTER and unique to them.

It’s not a lecture. You’re not beaten over the head with what you’re supposed to gain from it. It dares to use subtlety to layer all of its incredible elements together. So that you can gain something from watching it the 50th time as much as the 5th. So that the story grows with you.

THAT is where TFA and the Prequels fail so miserably. They’re not an engaging adventure, one that we feel we get to share in with our heroes.

The PT, and (so far) the ST, scream their blocking and the meaning at the top of their lungs so that it can’t be missed. Yet they can’t even bother to invest the time and charisma into their characters. 

They aren’t adventures. They are lectures. They are scarcely more than mathematical formulas.

Since the end of the OT they have done everything backward. They didn’t take a cool story, and structure it to fit the framework. They started with the framework and never bothered to build the characters and the bonds of the actual story.

EVERYTHING IS PLOT. Everything is plotted out before the characters. Their choices are made for them because by the time they take action they have no choice. The characters have no agency, and as such, no meaning and no room to grow with us.

If you lecture your audience with nothing but a formula, how could they ever connect with it?

If you tell them everything, why would they ever come back?

If everything is decided by the plot, why do you even pretend that your story is about people?

When Empire starts Luke wants to face Vader and avenge Obi-wan and Anakin, Han needs to leave the rebellion and take care of his bounty, and Leia appears ready to be a martyr for her cause and join her people. It's a character driven story, and those characters are given the agency to affect the reasons their stories change.

Luke Skywalker doesn't encounter a storm in hyperspace and get blown off course crash landing on to Dagobah because the plot needed him to get there. He receives a calling, and he decides to abandon his squadron and go finish his training.

Han spends a lot of time talking about leaving, but when he gets clearance to do so and hears that Leia is still coordinating the evacuation in the command center, he comes back to make sure she escapes.

Leia has lost everything with the destruction of Alderaan. Friends, family, goals, and any plans she might have had. It would be easy to let her drive to end the empire be the only thing she cared about or focused on. We see her walk that line several times.

But by the end of Empire Luke has confronted Vader, but cannot avenge his father. Leia has lost Han, but has decided to stop hiding, or denying her affection for him. Han Solo has left and returned to Jabba, but not of his own volition. Vader even confronts his son with the truth, but no one gets the results or rewards they might have hoped for.

Luke doesn't choose to surrender to Vader. Han doesn't choose to leave. Leia doesn't choose to die fighting. Even when confronted with their worst fears or nightmares, each of our heroes chooses to try again tomorrow.

The last time before VII we saw our heroes was in Return of the Jedi, and it's ending didn’t pretend to solve all the galaxy problems at once. That ending wasn't about things being happily ever after. It was about things being better than they had been.

Because stories have to end eventually, and when we feel we have gained something from them then we keep coming back, but only if we gain something from them.

Happy endings have nothing to do with our delusions of grandeur and childish fantasy. They are just as symbolic as the rest of our story.

Han, Luke, and Leia's trials, tragedies and failures are reflective of our own, just like their success. 

Endings are about our own ability to affect change in our own world, in our own lives. 

Sometimes those plans don't work don't work like we had in mind, but that doesn't mean we give up and decide to be dead to the world. 

Happy endings work because they reflect our continual search for a better tomorrow. They represent each of our own little victories.