#it's even titled 'x-wing lessons with poe'

[the-force-awakens]

hello hi, very quick - did you know i love him

[atamascolily]

Lily liveblogs: “The Rise of Skywalker,” part three

I end as I began: hopelessly confused about what the point of all this was. (Except for money. I got that part loud and clear.)

Rey just leaves Finn behind, because... friendship, right? Jannah does not have a good opinion of Rey right now, and tbh, I can't blame her. I realize Rey is under a lot of stress, but... her behavior since arriving on this "moon of Endor" has been wayyyy out of line.

Also, Poe pulls up with the Falcon right then, so I guess they got it repaired in record time, lol. Convenient.

Meanwhile, at the Resistance Jungle Base, everyone is sad because Leia is dead. I wonder who's in charge now???

"Goodbye, dear princess." Oh, so she's a General right up until she dies, and then it's back to princess again? I wish the ST would make up its mind about her title.

Oh, I guess Poe is, since he showed up and actually has a rank??

Chewie LOSES IT at the news Leia is dead--I feel you, bud. I feel you so hard.

Kylo tries to look dignified as he broods on the wreckage, but he looks awful. Like a drowned rat, with a convenient lightsaber-shaped hole in his tunic where Rey stabbed him. (She didn't even take the saber with her or drop it into the sea or anything! WHHYYYYYYYYYYY - gimme a reason, any reason, even a stupid one.)

And then Han shows up. Is he a ghost? Is this a memory? Is Kylo hallucinating? WHAT WHAT WHAT IS HAPPENING??? (This would have so much more resonance if we had SEEN how Han's death impacted Kylo earlier on instead of that one confused flashback at the beginning of the film....)

grizzled Harrison Ford looks great, why the hell did they kill him off in the first movie whyyyyyy

Okay, so they answer the question and this is a memory, which is fine, I usually love this trope, BUT it would be hella more effective if we'd seen Kylo arguing/interacting with memories of Han earlier instead of this happening for the first time NOW...

"Come home." Uhhhhhh, I honestly don't know what exactly Leia did, but she certainly kinda abetted killing him. What home does Kylo have now, anyway??

So Han says that what Leia fought for is still around, which is true, but Kylo is ostensibly the supreme leader here, so he doesn't just have to go AWOL, he can drag the FO leadership with him, and what passes for their government, he could SURRENDER and end the war right now. Does he? Of course not. He fucks off all by his lonesome after Rey and Palpatine because... that's all he knows how to do, apparently.

There's a callback that is supposed to resonate but doesn't work for me, because I just can't make myself feel for Kylo at all. Yes, redemption is hard. Yes, you have to work for it. Stop whining and just do it!!

We're supposed to think that Kylo will stab Han again (I guess?) but he turns and throws his saber into the sea. So that's why Rey didn't take it - so he could make a dramatic fucking gesture with it.

Palps is upset that Leia messed up his plans, but whatever. He orders Pryde, who apparently is now in charge of the FO in Kylo's absence, to come to Exegol. Apparently Pryde is a diehard Imperial (and possibly Sith cultist/Palpatine's secret puppet/agent??) I guess. It's never explained, he's just bad. And his name isn't subtle, either.

Palps just wants to burn everything to the ground for... evulz, I guess? I got nothing.

Pryde's star destroyer pops out a giant gun and blows up a planet.... apparently, Kijimi. Why, I don't know. Because they were just there?? Anyway, BOOM. Kijimi literally explodes.

What the actual fuck. How is that EVEN POSSIBLE?? What was the point of building two Death Stars if a Star Destroyer can do that????

Oh, apparently, that was the new model from the "Sith fleet" with a better upgrade. sounds fake, but okay. Poe is not thrilled by this news. The same Resistance member brings him the bad news, so I guess that's her official job??

Poe is genre-savvy enough to know that every ship in the Sith fleet has planet destroying weapons and they're doomed unless they stop the Final Order... which isn't new? I thought there was a countdown to an attack in 16 hours or something. What did they think they were attacking with? I don't even know, this movie is that incoherent.

Rose pops in with a message broadcasting on every channel about the "Resistance is dead. The Sith flame will burn. All worlds, surrender or die"... but given that it's in a language that isn't Basic, there's this one random dude with a beard who translates for the audience... and even though I assume it's meant to be some more commonly spoken language, given that the Sith have their own language in this movie, It makes it seem like this Random Resistance dude understands Sith and... I have questions.

Poe goes to sit by Leia's shrouded corpse because apparently they haven't buried her yet??? I wish Poe and Leia's relationship was more prominent in the movies, because I love the dynamic they're supposed to have, but never actually manifests in any of these movies.

Lando shows up to console him!

"How did you defeat an Empire with almost nothing?" "We had each other."

DAMN RIGHT YOU DID AND THE NEW GENERATION COULD TOO, IF THE WRITERS WEREN'T INTENT ON SEPARATING THEM CONSTANTLY AND MAKING EVERYBODY SUFFER....

Poe decides to make Finn his co-general. I have a lot of feels about this.

Turns out D-O knows all about Exegol because he used to belong to Ochi... that's actually earned, I'll allow it. Hilarious Rey never asked the droid about it  (or any other details of his past, given that she was pretty sure Ochi killed her parents).

Ahch-To! Rey is wearing her hood and I don't know why. She's throwing driftwood into the flaming wreckage of Kylo's TIE and sobbing and... I don't know what's going on here. There are SO MANY REASONS she could be crying, I don't even know.

And she tosses her lightsaber into the sea... just like Kylo did. Parallels. I get it. And just like Luke did to her... She's giving it up because she doesn't feel worthy of being a Jedi because of her heritage, I guess?? (I'm guessing because this movie doesn't explain shit.)

Speaking of which, there's Luke's ghost, right on schedule! I love his snark but it's SO OUT OF LINE given his behavior in the last movie... and the fact that Yoda told him he had to let go of the past and let the books burn. I mean... the fuck???

Rey has this dark throne vision that's driving her, but ironically that's the one vision we don't see in this whole mess.. we have all these OTHER visions instead, I can' teven keep them all straight.

Oh, she's decided to model Luke and fuck off to Ahch-To forever because she feels she made a mistake. that's absolutely the WRONG LESSON from Luke's life, Rey!!

(also, what happened to saving the world? The sith wayfinder? She just conveniently forgot Palpatine was gonna slaughter everybody because she's having heritage angst?????)

Leia not telling Rey about Rey's heritage makes perfect sense when you realize just how much Leia's life was fucked over by the knowledge that Darth Vader was her father--once in ROTJ and again when she got kicked out of the Senate and ostracized in Bloodline.

Luke has Leia's lightsaber conveniently hidden in his hut... so now Kylo/Ben can have a weapon of his own in the upcoming fight, gag. (Really, Rey should use it to make a double-bladed saber, but she won't, sigh.)

The flashback looks like a video game to me. The CGI is not terrible, but doesn't look nearly as real as the rest of the film to me.

Also, I'm forever mad that Leia gave up her saber thinking it would save her son, that is SO AWFUL, especially since IT DIDN'T WORK, HE STILL TURNED OUT EVIL ANYWAY AND RUINED YOUR LIFE.

"A thousand generations live in you now" would have so much more resonance if Rey was an avatar of the Force or a reincarnation of Anakin instead of the metaphorical. (Yes, I know it will be realized literally later on.)

[Just realized that Kylo's obsession with Rey would make TOTAL SENSE if she were an reincarnation of Anakin given how much he idolizes his grandfather!!!]

Whyyyyy doesn't Luke talk here about the revelation that Palpatine is alive? That he and his father failed to kill the Emperor? That Rey has to finish LUKE'S journey, too??? But no, it's all about Leia here.

Rey somehow didn't notice the wayfinder in Kylo's TIE until Luke says "you have everything you need"... I guess? I don't know how she missed it before!!!

And the X-wing rises out of the water like the deus ex machina that it is... somehow still spaceworthy after six years in the ocean. Okay, then.

Apparently, Force ghost Luke can still manipulate physical objects through the Force??? Okay, I can kinda buy that, but... still....

I love how Artoo doesn't even wait for Threepio to get started with the bullshit, he just imports the uploaded memories right away without asking. Normally, I'd be mad about consent, but a) they're married, and b) he's restoring Threepio's personality, so I'm okay with it.

I love how warped and creepy the space is around Exegol.

Also, D-O looks just like a desk lamp.

Oh, so the Resistance follows Rey through Luke's X-wing computer via Artoo. Convoluted, but it works, I guess.

Okay, so time for some technobabble, but there's a navigation tower (the new shield generator) they have to hit for REASONS with a "ground team" (aka strike team). Sigh.

Love the dismissal of the "Holdo maneuver"--which is essentially kamikaze-style suicide. Not a great battle strategy if you want to survive the fight.

Wait, wasn't Poe angsting earlier about how nobody answered their call from Crait back in the last movie? What makes him think this is going to be any different?????

Okay, so all the FO folks on are on Exegol now?? Who is piloting and crewing those Star Destroyers?? Are they First Order or Final Order people? What happened to the First Order? What is the relationship between the First Order and the Final Order? Are they the same thing with two different names?? (But no, there are two fleets, the Sith destroyers are different.) What happened to the First Order then? Does anyone notice and/or care the alleged "Supreme Leader" of the First Order is missing in action??? I'M SO CONFUSED.

Okay, it makes sense that Poe is in an X-wing given he's a hotshot pilot, but he's also a general, and... I'm so confused about the tactical aspect of that, but fine, whatever. Also, Artoo is in the X-wing with him instead of BB-8, who I thought was Poe's droid (to the point of reaming Rey over injuring him earlier in the film!!!) WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE???

we're baaaaacck in the creepy sith ruins just like the beginning of the film, but so much has happened that my brain has fried and so the parallels are not as compelling as they could be.

WHEN DID THEY PICK UP JANNAH?? Has she been there the entire time and we just didn't see her until now, or did they stop back at Endor's moon along the way??? I'M SO CONFUSED!!!

Finn has " a feeling" where the ship is... it's the Force, why are you teasing us like that. LET HIM BE A JEDI.

Okay, I actually really like the fact that all the FO deserter stormtroopers from Endor are using their mounts so their enemies can use the tech against them. That's poetic justice right there. And also, epic cool. Good thing all the ships are still in the atmosphere... (nobody's wearing masks like Finn did for the Kijimi pickup)

I don't know how there is lightning in a fucking underground pyramid, but 10/10 for aesthetic, I love it.

"Grandma, it's me, Anastasia"--oh, wait, never mind.

The reveal that Rey is in a giant arena is hella creepy, even though it makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. Where do all these people come from? What do they do? Where do they live? What do they EAT?? Are they born Sith? Brainwashed Sith?? Cultists? Clones??? I NEED ANSWERS HERE.

Palpatine dangling in his creepy metal arm-thing is a lot like GLADoS from Portal.

So... Palpatine can possess the person who kills him in anger??? Explains a LOT about how he treated Luke, actually. And why it was so important that Anakin finish him - one, because Anakin's body was failing, and two, because he did it for love.

Love the aesthetic of the flickering lights for added creepiness and nothing is quite real. Even if it makes no sense. My id knows what it wants, okay??

Jannah and Finn teaming up for the battle is great, BB-8 actually gets to do something for once, and I love Jannah's crossbow.

Oh, now Palps is going to monologue about Rey's parents, while telling us no interesting details whatsoever. Sigh.

HOW THE FUCK DID KYLO GET TO EXEGOL AGAIN????????????????? she left him stranded in the middle of a frikkin' OCEAN... and he just knows how to get back to Exegol without the macguffin,.... how....?

(yes, I know he's supposed to be "Ben Solo" again, but so far there has been zero explanation in the film itself, so I'm just gonna keep calling him Kylo.)

Okay, there's a TIE fighter next to the X-wing, but... where did he GET IT?????????

That "ow" is priceless. I watched that sequence twice.

(clearly Kylo has not been exploring ruins much recently.)

Finn explaining to Rose that he's going to sacrifice himself for the cause, exactly like she wouldn't let him do in the last film... and Rose goes with it. Okay, then.

Now Kylo has to fight his own boy band... who were secretly following the Emperor's orders the entire time (?) THE ENTIRE FIRST ORDER WAS LITERALLY A FRONT TO KEEP KYLO REN DISTRACTED AND KYLO TOTALLY BOUGHT IT. I... have questions, but I actually admire the sheer audacity of this.

Kylo fighting said knights would be way more emotionally engaging if we a) knew anything about them, b) had seen any interactions between Kylo and the knights earlier, and c) gave a shit, but none of those happened, so we don't.

Kylo and Rey have some sort of Force bond communication thing that is super vaguely filmed so it's hard to understand wtf is actually happening. Rey tosss her saber back and... Ben pulls it out behind his back.

what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the FUCK

I won't say that wasn't forshadowed, because it kinda-sorta was. I will just say that this movie has NEVER EXPLAINED HOW THEY CAN DO THAT or talked about it at ALL, just treats it like a fact, and I... have questions about how reality can be bent that way even if you are a Force dyad or whatnot.

So Kylo's fight with the knights parallels Rey's fight with a bunch of Imperial guards and it's so hard to care. Th timer says there's still a half an hour left, how is that possible???

So... it's okay to stab people as long as you do it with the properly colored lightsaber, I guess???

Kylo shows up, he and Rey exchange Meangingful Looks, they raise their sabers, Palps zaps them and slurps up "the lifeforce of your bond" and uses it to grow younger, whatever the hell that means ughhhhhhhh please let this be over soon.

Did he know they were a dyad before? Is THIS his real plan? I'm so confused and I have no idea wtf is going on.

RIP Snap. I guess I should care more about you, but I don't think you're mentioned in any of the other movies, so... *shrugs*

Poe has a meltdown but.... Lando shows up AGAIN to give him a pep talk, and also a fleet. Like seriously, Lando gets results, if he'd been running the Resistance, the war would be OVER by now.

Is the "Nice flying, Lando!" Older!Wedge?? I think so. I hope so, anyway.

Zorii shows up too, to fight and also insult Poe over the comm... I guess she's upset about Kijimi being destroyed? (Or maybe not given how she was so eager to get off it???)

Palps tosses Kylo into a pit, which... given that Palps survived, maybe not the best plan if you wanted to actually kill him.

Then he shoots force lightning through the hole in the arena into the sky and... zaps all the new fighters.

Well.

Okay then.

Rey wakes up and... reaches out to the spirits of past Jedi for help. (Apparently, Palpatine doesn't care about her killing him now, because he's young and healthy again, so it's okay to kill her? I guess he can always try again with another grandkid, lol.)

Also, it's funny how Rey is a Palpatine and blood is sooooo important and scary and destiny until someone's trying to diss her and then she's just "a scavenger girl". And by funny, I mean terrible. Sigh.

"I am all the Sith." I don't think the Sith, by the nature of their existence, can embody their predecessors the way that the Jedi can. I mean, to be a Sith is to be alone, and there is that whole Rule of Two business if that's still canon now. I mean, unless the Sith literally eat their masters and thus become them? But it seems a little late for THAT detail.  

But it's okay because Rey's embodying all the Jedi this time (and has TWO sabers, lol) and she turns Palpatine's Force lightning back on himself and he turns into a crisp. You'd think the Sith Lords would have worked out a defense against that, since that's how Mace Windu scarred him in the first place, but okay then.

The entire arena crumbles. All the faceless cultists are crushed by falling rock. Pryde goeth before the fall. Lando rescues Finn and Jannah before Poe can. All the star destroyers are stranded because the command ship is gone and start blowing up.

Anyway, Rey collapses in the ruins. Finn senses her fall. but Kylo climbs out of the pit and cradles her in his arms. (ewww ewww ewwwwwww NOOOOOOO) and cradles her to his chest [gross gross grossssssss she's dead and can't consent and I can't decide if that makes it grosser or not, she's never let him do this while she was ALIVE fuckkkkkk]. He finally lets go and then places his hand on her stomach, and ughhhhhh I have so many issues with this I don't care if he's reformed, he's been stalking for three films, this is NOT OKAY and does the Force healing trick, and...

literally he could have just put a hand on her forehead or shoulder, which I would still hate, but would be less creepy than this.

Rey wakes up, puts her hands on his, sits up, startled and... doesn't say anything, doesn't even flinch, and smiles. "Ben."

and she kisses him. I knew this was coming. I still hate it.

he smiles, falls over, and dies. Like, literally, it's like Rey's kiss murdered him. I'm a terrible person, I know, but I really can't mourn him.

Kylo's body vanishes (Leia's stayed intact, damn it!) proving I guess that he was good after all?? I thought only special people learned the vanishing trick??? Leia's body vanishes right at the same time, and... I don't get it, I really don't.

Maz apparently skipped the final battle to watch over Leia's corpse and I.... definitely don't get it.

was Leia possessing her son this whole time? What. Just. Happened??????

Rey flies away in Luke's X-wing under her own power, and... "Red Five is in the air again," says Finn. People are rising up all over the galaxy, though against what, I'm not clear, and the skies are suddenly clear, implying that the Emperor was warping the weather with his darkness.

We see Star Destroyers blowing up behind Cloud City and on the FOREST moon of Endor with the Ewoks and I just... never knew they were there??? Were they connected to the rest of the Fleet somehow (like the Katana fleet in Legends??) Where did this come from?? Wicket and his son are clearly satisfied, though why they think anything's going to change is beyond me. And was the First Order oppressing them? Why didn't we see any of their fleet when our protagonists were IN THAT SYSTEM AND SO WAS THE OSTENSIBLE SUPREME LEADER???

Another Star Destroyer crashes on Jakku, so literally NOTHING HAS CHANGED THERE, LOL.

Back at the Resistance Jungle Base, everyone cries and hugs, Poe and Zorii have a moment that goes nowhere, Poe's arm is somehow in a sling (???) There's a very brief lesbian kiss, but it gets even less screen time than Rose Tico, so again, don't think that counts as representation, but nice try.

Maz gives Chewie Han's medal from Yavin and... where the hell did she get it??? Leia's corpse??? Creepy!!

Jannah comes up to Lando and asks him where he's from, and when Lando asks the same question, she say she doesn't know. "Let's find out." Wow, that's way more interesting than most of this movie!

Rey hugs Finn and Poe and I... just... it's the tearful hug of "wow, we've all been through a lot of trauma since we last saw each other and also I was a jerk and threw you across the sea with the Force to get you out of my way and I abandoned you without saying goodbye to isolate myself on an island in the middle of nowhere until my ghost mentor reminded me I could save the day".

ButWeDon'tHavetimetounpackThatNow.jpg

Rey takes the Falcon to the Lars' moisture farm on Tatooine with BB-8. No one is in sight. This is an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere, not a shrine to the Legend of Luke Skywalker. Rey slides down the sides on a piece of metal and into the courtyard. She wraps up Luke and Leia's sabers and... we cut to her back up on the ridge near the droid garage, using the Force to bury them in the sand.

Then she pulls out her own saber and it's yellow-bladed and looks like a double quarterstaff (although I only saw the top blade ignite). What she should have had this entire movie.

There's a random woman with an eopie there, who... came over to investigate? there is literally NO ONE ELSE FOR MILES. HOW????

The woman asks who she is, and we have callbacks to that earlier conversation on Pasaana. Rey hesitates, sees Luke and Leia's ghost on the horizon, smiling their approval and says "Rey Skywalker". The movie ends with her standing  watching the double sunset... alone except for BB-8.

Wow, she's literally come full circle from being alone in the desert with a droid to being alone in a different desert with the same droid. What the fuck.

Cue triumphant music and credits.

Oh, and I just realized we never found out what was so important for Finn to tell Rey about... so that went nowhere. I assume it's "he can use the Force" but apparently that wasn't important enough to ACTUALLY INCLUDE, sigh.

Did Rey fuck off to Tatooine to be a hermit? Is she going back to her friends? Is she going to train the next generation of Jedi? How will she keep the cycle from repeating? Is it broken? Is Palpatine really dead this time??? How does she feel about Kylo/Ben?? Is HIS ghost still around stalking her, too? Why did she take the Falcon? Doesn't it belong to Chewie now? Why didn't the rest of the gang come with her???? I'm so confused.

This was even worse than I had anticipated, and I came into this with super-low expectations. This wasn’t bad in a “bad B-movie kind of way,” this was bad in the “nothing makes sense, it’s all jumbled blur, I am numb and cannot begin to care” kind of spectacle.  I cannot imagine watching this in a theater. No wonder the critics savaged this. 

[loopy777]

A larger question that needs two asks to cover. One of the biggest criticisms against the star wars sequel trilogy, is that all the OT main characters died complete failures after having all their work undone. Luke was the shining hope for new jedi, but had his academy killed, gave up, and essentially just became a bitter Yoda, then after returning to the man he used to be, he dies. Han saw his son become evil, abandoned his wife and became a smuggler again, and died failing to redeem him.

Leia worked so, so hard to make the new republic happen, only for it to die ridiculously easy. Essentially, there's an argument to be made that all their work was undone and they all died miserable failures. What's your thoughts on the subject?

Well, my take on this comes my philosophy on sequels in general. Unless it’s something with enough entries to really play with things, sequels need to maintain or escalate the story stakes. James Bond and Marvel movies, for example, can sometimes go big and sometimes go smaller scale, because they’re essentially episodes in a television series or chapters in a massive book.

Star Wars, on the other hand, is all epic all the time. Its movies are always events- and when they aren’t, the titles of the movies themselves tell us that they’re small skippable little things. Episodes 1-6 are about the greatest threat ever to the galaxy and Jedi; a sequel trilogy can’t follow that with a story about mopping up and just doing the stuff implied by the ending of Episode 6. But Episode 6 was meant to be the finale to the saga, so there’s no remaining threats or plots on the same level as Palpatine, the Empire, and the Sith.

I thought the sequels, at least TFA and TLJ, had an interesting way around that by being about the concept of sequels themselves. In order to create the proper stakes, the heroes were indeed turned into failures- and the heroes are directly reacting to that! Leia reacts by digging in trying to keep fighting. Han reacts by going back to just surviving. Luke reacts by giving up and trying to die. They hate the sequels turning them into failures as much as the audience.

And then TFA brings them back into things by having them become aware of the new heroes and the cycle of stories. What so many people took as Han’s moments of “Wow, I think Rey might be my daughter,” I took as “Huh, another wide-eyed prodigy from a desert planet who’s dragging me into an epic adventure.” I took Luke’s reaction to Rey offering him the lightsaber as him realizing that the story is starting over again and trying to draw him back in. Even Kylo Ren is actively trying to fit into the Darth Vader role and is frustrated that he’s just a cheap copy.

(I could have done without the repetition being so explicit with the return of X-Wings, TIE Fighters, a jungle base for the Rebels, another desert planet, Bigger Death Star, etc. The themes could have been there with new visuals that merely homage the old stuff. But I think the choice to recycle so much was a direct ploy to ease people back into Star Wars after the reactions to the prequels, so hoping for a lot of new stuff in TFA was probably always futile.)

And then TLJ directly follows this up by making the concept of a repeating story one of the major themes, explicitly! I considered it solid validation of my interpretation of TFA! (Now I honestly have no idea what was intended with TFA, because I think Rise Of Skywalker is completely disconnected from it. If ROS indeed represents the original intentions of J.J. Abrams, then TFA must have been heavily pulled off track, to its benefit, by Lawrence Kasdan.)

Han’s death, to me, was a mix of triumph and failure. On the one hand, he finds the strength to give himself over to The Story, to let go of survival and offer everything up for the chance to save his son. I think he knows that it’s not going to work, but he understands that it’s a step that has to be taken, and so he makes the attempt and lets his life be claimed.

This is the problem facing the young cast in TLJ. They trust too much in The Story, in heroes and last stands and destiny and redemption and sacrifice and a righteous cause. Luke, on the other hand, sees how all of that accomplishes nothing in the long run; he sees The Story at work and knows that a Happy Ending depends on where the storyteller stops, that continuance inevitably brings back the darkness. He realizes that the storyline of the prequels was forced on him in a repeat, despite his victory in Episode 6, and wants no part in an endless cycle of dumb movies about space wizards killing people.

It’s Leia who seems, in TLJ, to see the possibility for a path of balance. She’s still part of The Story, still values the things that the younger generation does, but she also sees that those things won’t bring victory by themselves. They need to be smart about how they participate in The Story. Strategic with when they invoke The Story and when they should shy away from it. The failures of the younger cast eventually teach them this, as well. Rey uses the Millennium Falcon to bait the First Order at the end of the movie, pulling TIE Fighters into a reenactment of Return Of The Jedi to save her friends, but she no longer thinks she can force the redemption of Vader onto Kylo. Poe and Finn learn lessons about how the true value of Heroic Stands isn’t taking out bad guys, but changing the direction of The Story.

And Luke finds the path of balance as well, finding that The Story can be turned against the darkness. Where Finn and Poe learn when not to invoke the Heroic Stand, he rediscovers the moment when both a Hero and a Last Stand is the greatest weapon to employ against the enemy, and so steps back into his role in a way that will let the younger generation learn and continue to grow. That he does so in the single greatest feat of the Force in the entire saga makes it especially triumphant.

Kylo Ren, meanwhile, has likewise become frustrated with the nature of sequels, but instead of finding a balance between new and old, he casts away everything old (”Let the past die. Kill it if you have to. It's the only way to become who you were meant to be.“) and seeks only something new- and in doing so is defeated by the protagonists who have weaponized The Story against him. Because a franchise like Star Wars can’t go fully New as there’s too much valuable IP to mine.

This is why I had such high hopes for ROS. Luke had already turned the tide of The Story, and the next cast had been set up to find an Ending that would prevent The Story from happening again. Literally all the next movie had to do was deliver on what was already set up with some plot mechanics.

And that’s why Rise Of Skywalker is so bad, to me. After two sequels dealing, on a meta level, with the concept of sequels themselves, ROS just copies tropes from the classic trilogy without adding anything, without finding new meaning in anything. Rey learns that her father is Darth Vader (metaphorically), and struggles with the same themes Luke did, eventually coming to the same conclusions. She confronts Palpatine just like Luke did, with the aid of a darksider she helped pull back to the light, and makes the conflict into just another clash of Jedi vs Sith, doing nothing to guarantee that another sequel down the line won’t bring that enemy back for a nostalgia cash-in.

Even Leia becomes a failure, throwing a Redemption trope at her son with no meaning behind it, turning him away from the darkness but without any insight into how he became Anakin Skywalker Redux, how she and Han and Luke had previously failed. She did nothing to prevent it from happening again in another generation; she just solved this one problem and then died, tidying up her subplot but having no lasting impact.

All of this confirms that Han, Luke, and Leia are merely failures, as you describe, as ROS shows that they’ve left nothing behind that will continue. Where TLJ introduced the idea that they had to fail in order to gain greater understanding of The Story, so that they could teach its mastery to the next set of protagonists and end things with merely one Sequel Trilogy,

And thus ROS confirms that failure is inevitable; Rey, Finn, and Poe will fail again the next time Disney needs to exploit nostalgia, because they never mastered The Story. The full cast tried to confront the nature of Sequels, saw the conundrum that they can have no impact while Disney sees more money to be made from Star Wars...

And they all give up, surrendering to cliche. Han, Luke, and Leia repeat their acts from previous movies, or the acts of their predecessors from the prequels, and cash their checks and walk away. I don’t mean the actors; I truly mean that ROS turns Han, Luke, and Leia into Space Opera jobbers.

So yes, they all died as miserable failures.

But, dangit, until ROS, I thought there was going to be a greater, beautiful point to it.

And there’s no fixing it now. This isn’t a story that can be retconned or ignored. ROS’s abandonment of the themes of the previous two sequels stands as a glaring Statement Of Intent from Disney: there is no meaning in these movies, just the exploitation of a thing we once loved.

And that’s going to take a lot come back from.

[summahsunlight]

Pathways, a series of drabbles

Title: Shara

Word Count: 2006

Characters: Poe, Kes, Shara, Luke, Sela (OC), Kaleb (OC), Evelyn (OC)

Pairings: Kes/Shara, Luke/Sela (OC)

AO3/Master List

Yavin, 10 ABY

On his seventh birthday, his mother had taken him up in her A-wing and let him almost take full control.

By his eighth birthday, Shara was on her deathbed.  Poe would not recall later in his life what exactly ailed his mother; Kes never talked about it, all he knew was that on his eight birthday his parents were nowhere to be found.  Poe spent it with the Skywalkers at the Temple.  Which, wasn’t such a bad thing, Master Luke had let him sit in the cockpit of his X-wing and talked with him about flying and told stories from the war. Sela had brought them cake and koyo fruit juice, and Poe was astutely aware that all the adults in his life were trying to hide that something bad was happening.

Poe had been taught by Shara to be observant. You had to be up in the cockpit.  He decided not to worry the adults and ate his cake, drank his koyo fruit juice, and went off to play with Kaleb and Evelyn when Master Luke was summoned to the Dameron’s ranch.

It was hours later that Master Luke returned, the sun hung low in the sky, Yavin rising beyond the Massassi trees.  Poe and Kaleb were climbing large boulders in the courtyard of the Temple, leaping off of them and seeing how far they could fly.  Evelyn shouted at them to stop each time.

All three of the children knew something was up when one of Master Luke’s older students came out and announced that she was in charge of Kaleb and Evelyn for a little while.  The other students were only asked to watched the Skywalker children if a problem arose that required the attention of both Luke and Sela—which was rare.   Poe watched as his friends took the hands of the student and were led back into the Temple.  Master Luke stood there, looking at him with sorrow, hands folded in front of him.  “Poe, come here, so we can talk.”

“Is something wrong?” Poe asked, watching as Master Luke sat on one of the boulders that he’d just leapt from. He sat down with the Jedi Master. “Are you mad that I dared Kaleb to jump off the rocks?”

“Oh no, I’m not mad,” Master Luke answered, smiling at him.  He reached out and placed a hand on the back of the little boy’s head. “You know your mother is sick, right?”

“Yeah. She stays in bed all the time,” Poe replied. “Papa moved her bed next to the window so she could see the sky.”

Master Luke gently stroked his hair. He heaved a sigh, and his eyes wet with tears, whispered, “Your mother was too sick to make better, Poe.  She didn’t want to leave you on your birthday, but her body just gave out; it was too much for her to handle anymore.”

Poe swallowed. In his eight-year-old mind he knew what Master Luke was telling him—that his mother, the strong, the brave Shara Bey—was gone.  He just didn’t want to believe it.  Pushing off the rock, Poe ran all the way home, his lungs burned for air by the time he reached the front porch, bursting into the house screaming for his mother.

Kes appeared in the bedroom door, his eyes red from crying, muscles aching from holding his wife so rightly while she took her last breath in his arms. Shara had not wanted their little boy to see her so sick and frail.  On her good days they could both see how it affected him, on her bad… Shara asked that Kes kept him away.  Poe never asked why, he had seen how much weight his mother lost, how thin and frail she became. So now, Kes blocked the bedroom door with his large frame.

His son tried to get past him, tried to use his small body to dislodge his father from his post.  Ultimately, he could not, and Poe collapsed on the floor. “Papa, I want to see Mama. Master Luke says she didn’t get better! But she’s going to get better! She… we haven’t finished our flying lessons yet!”

He couldn’t say anything. Kes felt dead inside. So many promises now gone with his wife.

Sela was the one that saved him from having to answer. She gently took Poe by the arm and pulled him away from the bedroom.  Getting down on her knees in front of him, she pulled the little boy tightly into her embrace, whispering, “I’m sorry.”

“No!” Poe sobbed, shaking his head. “NO!” he now screamed, pushing Sela away. As tiny sobs racked his small body, Poe ran from the house, towards the garage.  As he ran, he saw the nurse and doctor from the colony cleaning up their equipment—his mother’s face covered with a white sheet.  “Mama…” he whimpered. “You promised!”  You promised you’d teach me everything! You promised you’d always be there!

Kaleb and Evelyn climbed up the ladder of the A wing; inside the cockpit they could hear little sniffles. The adults had been searching for Poe. After the news broke that Shara Bey, former hero of the Rebellion, mother, wife, had passed, a solemn feeling had fallen over the Temple and Yavin in general.

Poe was nestled inside his mother’s fighter, legs pulled up to his chest, face buried in his knees.  He barely moved when his two friends climbed into the cockpit with him.  Fortunately, Kaleb and Evelyn were still small and wedged themselves on either side of Poe.  No words were spoken between the three children; the beauty of their friendship was that at times they didn’t need verbal language to communicate. Both the Skywalker children hugged Poe.

His sniffles turned to cries.  Poe felt so lost and alone.  His mother was gone and she was never coming back; he would never learn to fly, never go to flight school.  How could he leave Papa now?  Papa would need him, he’d seen the blank look in Kes’ eyes as he stood blocking the door the bedroom.  Mama would want them to stick together, to take care of one another and he would never be able to take care of his father if he was so far away at flight school.

It felt like all his dreams had died that day, not just his mother.

Burying his face further into his knees, he sobbed; his friends small hands rubbed his back, shoulders, and eventually all three children fell to sleep.

“Did you find them?” Sela asked as Luke stepped inside the house. “Kriff Luke, what if they went out into the jungle this late at night!”

“I found them,” Luke assured her. “Sleeping. In Shara’s A-wing.”

Sela felt like her husband had punched her in the gut. Of course. No one had thought to check Shara’s fighter for Poe when they realized that the little boy was not coming back.  It had been agreed upon to give Poe some space, but as hours passed that he was gone, the more worried they had become.  “We should bring them inside, put them to bed.”

Luke nodded and sighed, sadly. “Yes, I know, but leave them for a few. Poe is finally feeling better after hours of grieving. I think he needs his friends now more than he needs another adult gazing at him with pity.”

Tears pooled in her green eyes and she turned away from him.  For weeks Sela knew that Shara wasn’t long for this galaxy, but seeing poor Poe, heartbroken over his mother’s death… it had broken her heart. “He feels like the galaxy is falling apart, Luke, that all his dreams are now gone—he’s only eight—it’s not fair.  And I know Shara never foresaw herself dying this young, but she made a promise to her son that she now cannot keep.”

“He’ll learn to fly,” Luke stated in that calm, comforting, soft tone of voice of his. “He was always destined to fly—even if Shara didn’t foster that desire.”

“Luke, in case you haven’t noticed, there isn’t one flight school on Yavin,” Sela pointed out, sarcastically as she washed the pile of dirty dishes in Kes’ sink.

“I can teach him—you—Han.”

“Han was pretty upset that Ben didn’t seem interested in flying.”

Luke’s lips pulled into a sad smile.

“Han will be happy to have another student. See, Sela, Yavin will have a flight school.”

Sela sighed, wiping her tears on the back of her hand.  Shara had been one of the first friends she had made in the Rebellion, a woman that had accepted her from the moment she met her while others had not been thrilled, she was there.  Her father’s reputation was well known.   “She always used to tell me that she was going to die in a blaze of glory,” Sela whimpered, dropping the dish was cleaning into the sink, “I just didn’t think… maker… Luke she was so young!”

He went and hugged his wife, pulling her into his arms protectively, not caring that her hands were still wet and she was getting his jumpsuit wet. Luke knew how much Shara had meant to Sela, by the time he’d met Sela the two were thick as thieves—it was Sela that recommended that Shara help Luke retrieve the Force tree. Gently, he ran his hands through his wife’s copper hair, feeling her fear at the thought she might leave her children so young.  “No one is ever really gone, Sela.”

She turned in his arms and gripped his jumpsuit.  Sela had lost at lot over the years—her mother, her older brother—her little sister.  They were all a distant memory now. She had searched for them after the war of course; her brother had been killed, and her mother… a shell of the woman that Sela remembered.  She didn’t dare tell her mother when she finally saw her again that she had met and married Luke Skywalker—if her leaving for the Rebellion wasn’t enough to disown her, well, marrying the greatest enemy of the Empire surely was.

“Mama,” Evelyn’s tiny voice said from the door.

“Hi, darling,” Sela said, pulling away from Luke and wiping at her eyes. “Are you ready for bed?”

“Shara told me to tell you not to be sad.”

Her statement stopped both Luke and Sela in their tracks.  She threw a look at her husband, one mixed with terror and curiosity.  Sela knew that her daughter was deeply connected to the Force, even at such a young age, her husband and the other Jedi constantly commented that she was an incredibly bright light.  The Jedi’s Light,  Lon San Tekka had nicknamed her as a baby.  “Shara…told you what?”

Evelyn could clearly see that her parents were upset but she didn’t know why.  “Shara told me that you shouldn’t be sad.  She’s not sick anymore.”

Luke stepped towards his little girl, picked her up and searched her eyes for a moment. The fact that Evelyn was so comfortable with a vision coming to her solidified his decision that he should start training his children young. Pressing a kiss to her temple, Luke turned towards Sela. “See, never really gone.”

Sela sighed, sadly and nodded.  It was going to take her a long time to get over her sadness but for Shara, she would try her best.  “Are your brother and Poe still asleep in the ship?”

“Uh-huh,” Evelyn said, and then she yawned. Her little head rested on her father’s shoulder and she too was soon fast asleep.

“I’ll go lay her in Poe’s bed,” Luke announced, “and then get the boys. Have you checked on Kes?”

“Hasn’t left his room since they took her away,” Sela replied, fighting back tears. “We should probably stay here, for a while, you know make sure Kes and Poe are alright.”

Little did Sela and Luke know that a little while was in actuality going to be eight months.

[rinskiroo]

Nowhere is Somewhere

[AO3] [Part 2] [Masterlist]

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

Just a small ficlet I wrote after watching The Last Jedi a second time.  Rey and Poe have a conversation about Jakku.  It wasn’t supposed to be shippy... but then it kind of happened.  Force-sensitive Poe, if you squint, too.

“You’re lucky,”  she tells him out of the blue one day.  They’re standing—well, squatting—under a piece of the Falcon trying to adjust bent stabilizers.

“I’m sorry?”  Poe looks over, confused.  And nervous. He’s so cool, like she always imagined hot shot X-Wing pilots to be—at least, around everyone else.  Around her, he’s fidgety and carefully chooses his words.

“You know exactly where you come from.  Your parents.  Grandparents.  All their friends.”  Her eyes cut across the field, where they’ve parked the old freighter, to the huts of this village that has offered them refuge.  Maz was the only one to answer their call.  Helped them find a place to regroup.  Lick their wounds.  Leia’s in one of those huts, trying to find someone—anyone—who will help.

It shouldn’t have bothered her, the words that Kylo Ren had implanted in her brain.  That she was no one, came from nowhere.  Was barely worth a flagon.  But it did. It ate at her insides and tore a hole that never seemed to fill back up.

“I know where you come from, Rey,”  he says.  The words spill honestly from him.

Her eyes cut back towards him.  She wants to be harsh, laugh, be sarcastic—anything but as honest as he’s being now.  “Do you?”

“Yeah,”  he grins. His eyes crinkle with his smile, hints of white teeth behind his lips.  “You’re from Jakku.”

Of course he knows.  She realizes how foolish the words were leaving her lips.  He had taken the map from Jakku.  Left BB-8 on Jakku.  Fallen from the sky with Finn and crashed into Jakku.  Been thought dead on Jakku.

Junkyard.  Nowhere.

Buried in a pauper’s grave.

“Jakku’s nowhere,”  she says.

“Well…”  Poe shrugs his shoulders as his fingers tighten on the spanner and he goes back to over-tightening the same bolt.  He’s nervous again, like he shouldn’t have said anything and just let the conversation hang.  He’s probably wondering if he should do that now, or chance to continue talking. “It’s Inner Rim.  So it’s not nowhere.”

“You know what I mean.”

There’s a sigh she doesn’t catch the meaning behind and he drops the spanner back into the toolbox.  “That’s the last one.  Should be good to go now.”  He puts his hand up so as not to hit his head as he stands and maneuvers out from under the Falcon.  There’s a pang of guilt as she feels as if she’s just shot him down.  Clipped his wing with a blaster charge and sent him spinning into the dirt.  Well, didn’t he have more important things to do anyway than fiddle around with this old ship?  Surely, the honeymoon period with the ship of legend should have worn off by now.

Meals are always a communal thing.  They make a large pot of something; Rey doesn’t care what it is, just enjoys that it’s warm and there’s enough to fill her belly.  They sit around on these flat stone tablets and have pleasant conversations, tell jokes, old stories, count the stars.  The inhabitants of this village—short, large eared creatures who speak little Basic mostly translated by Threepio. They are friendly enough and freely offer what’s left of what they have to the Resistance.  They have their own stories about the stars and moons and the ancient civilizations.

Rey is fascinated.  She wishes she had a great story to tell.  But she scavenged junk, fought off thieves.  She scraped at parts until her fingers bled in order to have barely enough food to not die.  She has one story—well, two.  The one about how she rescued a droid and a former storm trooper and escaped on the Millennium Falcon.  And the one where she met Luke Skywalker.  She doesn’t tell the story about Kylo Ren, Ben Solo, and Snoke. She told Leia.  She told Finn.  Everyone else only know that Snoke is dead, not the details.  They’ve seen the split saber, but no one asks.  Rey doesn’t mind telling her stories, but she’d rather hear everyone else’s.

“We’re talking the last great stand.  The battle to end all the battles.  Every.  Ship. On both sides.”  Poe’s standing on one of the stone tablets they use as a table. He’s got his bowl in one hand with thick stew sloshing about and a spoon in the other as he weaves the tale.  “The Republic—a string of victories, a new government.  The Empire—in its death throes.”

The light from the fire flicks over Dameron’s features.  He’s a natural leader, ace pilot, and, in that moment, a magician with words.  Rey finds herself captivated by the drama he’s reliving.  She can see it clearly, as if she’s watching some holo-novella.

“We have legends: Ackbar, Rieekan, Ranz—“  There’s a dramatic pause.  “Wedge karking Antilles.”

Someone whoops in the crowd.  Another whistles.  They love the stories of the Rebellion and Poe knows them all.  He’s like his own HoloNet archive.

“We’ve even got Imperial defectors: Stramm, Kyrell, and Versio.”

Rey looks at Finn at this point in Poe’s telling of the story.  He’s grinning wide at his friend.  In forty years, will they tell the story of Finn the defector? She hopes people will remember him. Remember his bravery and selflessness.

“We’ve got Starhawks, Home One, the Liberty, and more X-Wings, A-Wings, and Y-Wings than I could count.  Stop me if I’m lying, Snap.”  Poe points with his spoon to his friend and fellow pilot.

Snap Wexley lets out an almost embarrassed chuckle as he waves the other pilot off.  “Stop reminding people I was at that battle.  My joints ache enough.”  A woman with short blonde hair sitting next to him throws her head back and laughs loudly and punches him in the shoulder none too gently.  Rey grins at their antics, their camaraderie, their love.

Poe continues listing off the names of ships, squadrons, and Generals like the damn encyclopedia he is.  But it doesn’t sound like a history lesson.  He’s excited; he makes his audience excited.  He tells the story with gusto, passion, and with reverence.

It takes Rey a moment of listening to the enchanting tenor of his voice before she realizes she knows exactly what he’s detailing.

“An Executor, twenty Star Destroyers—“

“Twenty-five.”

Poe pauses in the middle of his recount, spoon still held aloft.  Several heads turn from him to her and her small voice that cut through his rousing story.

“There were twenty-five Star Destroyers at the Battle of Jakku. Twenty-three Imperial-class and two Interdictor-class.”

The hand holding the spoon drops slightly and he grins—a cheeky sort of smile she’d only seen him give other people before.  “Well, it looks like I’m not the only war history nerd here.”

“No.”  She shakes her head as she takes one step at a time towards him.  She doesn’t know why she has to correct him, but he’s wrong and she knows he’s wrong.  People should have the facts, even if they’re dumb facts like how many dead star cruisers litter her nothing planet.  “I’ve just seen them.  Counted them.”

“Beebee-ate, make sure you record that.”  He points his spoon like the ringleader of a circus at the droid.  Like her correcting him was part of his performance. “Twenty-five Star Destroyers.”

The evening wears on and they drift off to their borrowed huts and tents and scattered sleeping rolls.  Rey stares into the fire and slurps the last of the leftovers out of her bowl.  Not a drop wasted.

“You knew how many Star Destroyers were at Jakku,”  she says to the man fidgeting with the laces on his boot. It’s an amused sort of accusation as she recognizes he was trying to get her attention, to draw her into the spectacle.

“I was rounding.”  He shrugs as he stands up, nonchalantly walks over to where she’s sitting.  His hands wipe on his trousers, then rest on his hips, then dig into his pockets.

“You don’t round, General.”  Rey smirks at his new title.  It’s not derisive, but proud.  He saved what was left of the Resistance.  Led them out of the tomb to fight another day.  And he doesn’t round.  He’s detailed.  Precise. She scoots over slightly on her stone bench next to the fire and it takes him a few shuffles of his feet before he finally takes the offered seat.  Somehow, though he’s still inches from her, he’s warmer than the fire. Like he’s his own star.

She sees him.  Not in a way she expected.

“The Empire fell that day,”  Poe says after a moment.  His elbows rest on his knees.  His fingers twist together.  “Fell right into the sands of Jakku.”

“Junkyard.”

“Yeah.”  He can’t disagree on the point.  It’s too obvious.  Her whole life was sifting through garbage.  The Republic left all its mess in the Jakku sands and went home to celebrate. “But it’s still an important place. Something very significant happened on Jakku.

“When I was a kid, I went on this tour of historical battle sites.  We saw all the big ones: Yavin, Hoth, Endor, Naboo... and Jakku.”

“Kids?”  Rey raises her brows at him, nearly to her hairline.  “Tourists?  On Jakku?”

“Well, not on.  We just saw it from space.  My point is—“ His hands reach out, nearly cover hers, but he stops himself.  His eyes drift from his hands to her eyes.  And he’s so honest, again.  “The place you come from—I mean, not that it even really matters now—but it’s not nowhere.”

It bothers her more than it should—the shame of coming from nothing, of parents who sold her.  But this man, son of heroes, of a privileged upbringing, telling her she should be proud of where she came from.  She sees the kindness in his attempt and she offers him a small smile.  “Do you think when they tell stories about us, they’ll call me ‘Rey from Jakku’?”

Poe’s quiet for a second, like he’s turning over the thought in his head, thinking about his words far too carefully.  He looks at her again, a sincerity in his dark brown eyes. Different from the looks she’s gotten from other people.  It’s wholly unnerving but at the same time ensnaring.  “I think they’ll call you whatever you want them to.  Whether it’s Rey from Jakku, or Jedi, or Porg Herder.”

“Oh, please, no.”  She laughs, a bit harder than she intended.  Her hand covers her mouth and nose as an unattractive snort exits her nostril.  Poe laughs then, too, and whatever odd moment that had caused the air to still dissipates with the smoke.

“If I had not been on Jakku,”  Rey says slowly as she wipes a tear of laughter from the corner of her eye.  She plays into this conversation that Jakku isn’t entirely worthless, even if she still doesn’t believe it.  “I would not have learned how to survive.”

“A very important skill.”

Rey laughs again at his obvious quip.  “Or all about ships and how they work and how to speak to droids.”

“Sometimes I like talking to droids more than people.”

“Are you just going to interrupt me through this entire admission that, while my upbringing was cruel and horrible, it did seem to serve a purpose?”

Poe holds up his hands in defeat and doesn’t say another word.

“And I never would have found Beebee-ate, or Finn.  Or you.”  She gives him a look that she hopes matches the one he gave her.  Something that’s open and honest and tells him that she appreciates what he did for her today.

Poe’s hand hovers over hers again and she wonders why he hesitates.  She makes the decision for him and presses the top of her hand into his palm.  It’s as warm as she imagined; calloused, and yet, with a softness.

“I wish you could have had a better start, Rey,”  he says before he swallows thickly, the words rumbling around in his chest.  “But you’re here, now, with us.”

She understands his meaning, though he seems to have a hard time putting it into so many words.  They’re all family here.  Not just Poe and Leia because she knew him when he was a boy, was friends with his parents.  Or Snap and Karé because they’re married.  But every one of them.  She may have fallen into this rebellion accidentally, or maybe the Force pushed her a bit, but she’ll keep them.  They’re hers now.

When they get to their feet to finally turn in for the night, Rey wraps her arms around Poe.  She feels him stiffen against her touch, unsure.  She plants her cheek on his shoulder and squeezes him close.  It takes a second, but he seems to remember what to do in this sort of situation and embraces her back.  His warm hand is in her hair and there’s a long, slow breath from both of them.

“Thank you, Poe.”

[hannibaltabu]

"Amazing. Everything you said in that sentence was wrong."

I just got done listening to the Mr. MoKelly spoiler-filled Nerdcast on Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

I was supposed to be on the podcast (and I was counted near the end), but I had to appear on a special edition of the Hall H Show podcast to promote the brand new Black Com!x Day in San Diego, February 17, 2018. I love Mo and Tawala, I love Star Wars and I love Nerdcast but this was about promoting independent Black comics, a financial benefit for me, so I had to make a call. Plus, my wife is in Cuba and couldn't pick up my youngest from Shakespeare rehearsal on this side of town, since the Nerdcast is in Burbank.

Regardless, I liked The Last Jedi even more after seeing it twice, and the following -- like the Nerdcast itself -- will be chock full of spoilers. If you have not seen the movie, you might wanna move on. Unlike their show, mine will have no profanity. Most of what I have to say will be a rebuttal, so I'll start with a declarative statement:

I can admit it's not an amazing movie, but I really thought it was a fantastic Star Wars movie. I liked.

... and then ...

Still amazing after the second screening. I'm in Normas Lee happy with this film.

iOS dictation made that weirder than I intended, but whatever. That was supposed to be "enormously happy."

Okay, here we go ...

Mo said there was nothing quotable about The Last Jedi. Ignoring the title of this post there was ...

"This isn't gonna go the way you think!" (used a lot with my kids already)

"The greatest teacher, failure is."

"He's a troublemaker. I like him."

"Hope is like the sun. If you only believe in it when you can see it ..." "... you'll never make it through the night."

"I'd like to put my fist through this whole awful, beautiful city." (may have missed a word on this one)

"Permission to jump in an X-Wing and go blow something up?"

"I really don't want to do this right now."

"... I'll hold."

I was cracking up too hard to get the "Have you seen some weakness in my apprentice?" speech.

Mo said, "We know nothing about Rey."

Kylo made her admit the truth: her parents were not some cosmic royalty. They were not high ranking Jedis. They were civilians, normal jerks. The darkness rose, so the Force -- always making Force sensitive children -- dumped a bungload of midi-chlorians (or whatever) into Rey and made her powerful. The stable hand boy with Rose's ring on the casino world could be next, as he already has control over some of his telekinesis.

This fits Disney's mold incredibly well, making Rey a new everywoman heroine. Anyone can be this powerful. It could be you. That is gonna sell a bungload full of merch.

Mo said: "We learned nothing about this principle cast."

Finn has been hugged twice in his life now and kissed once, leading him to do all kinds of crazy and sometimes stupid things. About 2/3 of the way in, he grew up a little, and beating Phasma freed him from a lot

Poe Dameron was not a believer, he was a gun set in one direction. In a different world, he could have been the most dangerous pilot in the First Order's apparatus. It took a lot for him to start to mature so he could lead instead of just fighting, which he did mostly because of his parents (as seen in the Marvel comic).

Leia wants to pass the mantle of leadership on to Poe, her new "son," into whom she has poured all her lost hopes from Ben Solo. That tragic tale led her to do all kinds of interesting things, from demoting him to stunning him.

We got a LOT from Rose, who grew up poor, lost everything to the First Order, lost her sister fighting back, was inspired by Finn, who she had a crush on and then had to deal with the real guy, then saw that she still was attracted to him once he tried to not be the idiot he's been for so long. She was likened to Knives Chau from Scott Pilgrim, which I thought was a spot on analysis by Thomas Cunningham the 4th (we're rarely on the same side, so this was weird).

Ben Solo never had a chance. He had too many expectations heaped on his shoulders, was too powerful and had a master who knew too little. He got the Obi-Wan treatment and it ended essentially the same way, with him under the sway of a powerful, organized Dark Side user.

Luke was broken by every failure in his life. He accomplished exactly two things in his whole life -- the first Death Star at Yavin and "allegedly" turning Vader (which no one can prove, honestly). He failed his sister, he failed his friend, he failed his nephew -- all at the same time -- and wasn't man enough to do anything about it, instead pointing to his organization's history as a precedent for him to give up. Sadly, that fits whiny farm boys from Tattooine (who either failed into the Dark Side or this) and Mark Hamill acted his butt off in this role.

Leia had become everybody's favorite auntie, as quoted and shown in the reverence she's showed by everyone on screen. She played the role well, from "I changed my hair" to shooting Poe to revealing Holdo's plan.

The casino sequence got Finn to his resolution with Phasma and swings the camera to the new Force sensitive kid. That doesn't happen without the casino scene. Saying it was a dumb sidequest ignores the plot's development.

Tawala is mad at the X-Wing working so well on the dreadnaught, ignoring the fact that the large scale, shock and awe philosophy of the Empire (sampled enthusiastically by the Cosplay Empire, also known as the First Order, but never really played originally by the latter) has a well documented weakness against snub fighters. The First Order are so hell bent on recreating the Empire that they didn't learn anything, which makes the Yoda quote even more interesting. The Jedi failed. The Republic failed twice. The Sith failed. The Empire failed. The First Order ain't doing so well. What is the galaxy trying to teach its inhabitants that they're not hearing? That's the question that most haunts me from this film.

Likewise, Tawala asked why not send in a fleet of X-Wings. The Resistance was on the ropes. They lost ALL their bombers in one run on a single dreadnaught, which wasn't even the biggest thing the Kuat Shipyards ever built (the Eclipse was much longer, dunno if bigger). The Dreadnaught was a fleet killer -- and against capital ships, that's likely true. They could barely field the fighters they had.

Mo said, "There's no gravity in space." There is gravity in the bombers. Momentum would carry the bombs through the vacuum. I was more mad that the bombers were so slow.

Tawala is mad about Rey's dream sequence from The Force Awakens not matching the recollections of two people who were actually there. That's illogical. The dream sequence was an interpretation of the facts, not a retelling of it. Many on the podcast kept trying to say The Force Awakens is a factual recollection of events. That's clearly -- based on this -- not true. Despite the fact that it doesn't matter, based on new canon from the Darth Vader Marvel comic, lightsabers turn red when they are bloodied in anger.

The emperor's "As I have foreseen" was not prescience it was psychology. The Dark Side cannot be reliably used for information. Tawala and Mo misunderstand how the Emperor worked. His myth was way bigger than his actual ability. All of the movies have proven that Dark Side users are limited in their ability to gain knowledge and prescience from the Force.

Mo judging Snoke by the Emperor's yard stick is not judging this movie on its own terms. Snoke was what he needed to be. Historically, I want to know where he was around Endor and what he was doing, but I can move on now without questioning it, despite his vast power.

I can also tell my Star Wars Ring Theory link didn't get absorbed by the class here ... if you love Star Wars you should check it out, it messes with your understanding of a lot, especially the prequels.

It takes maybe 60 seconds for a non-powered person to die in vacuum. For the daughter of Vader to telekinetically figure how to save herself in that amount of time is not implausible. Leia's force abilities already shown? Communication across distances, sensing the safety of her brother from a distance. This isn't that big a leap for someone of her heritage given how far Rey got without training.

Someone wondered why Yoda's Force ghost wasn't fighting the First Order. Yoda is free from the cycle of life's struggles. He needed to teach one last lesson to his final student. To say he should fight the First Order after he already died is illogical, even if there was a powerful enough Force user in the Resistance who could reach him. You also forget the Bindu, which was a largely spiritual creature, could use lightning as a weapon too.

"Face" /= kill. Tawala forgot that in ROTJ Yoda told Luke he must "face" Vader before he could become a Jedi. Luke (like Tawala) misunderstood and said, "I can't kill my father" or something. You forget that Jedi lie and misdirect a lot. Spirit, come on, guys, this is stuff in movies we've seen a million times.

Mo thinks that he was cheated because he didn't know why everyone was after Luke as a non-factor. If Malcolm X or Marcus Garvey magically appeared today and went to the middle of Times Square to start speaking through my mobile 15" speaker, it would galvanize a freaking nation and terrify the power structure. Luke the Jedi wasn't the threat and even Luke said that. Luke the Legend was what Snoke had to stop, what Kylo had to exceed, what Leia wanted to manipulate. The Legend could inspire, could sway worlds and systems to resist. Luke the Jedi was just moderately successful. He was nobody's #1 seed. He was a Cinderella story wild card winner.

I will admit to wondering why no star destroyers went to lightspeed away and then jumped back in front of the Rebels until I remembered that Hux is literally bad at everything he does.

"Two hours in the middle" doesn't give credit to the entertaining dialogue, doesn't give credit to the time for character development for Poe under Holdo's stoicism, doesn't count Leia's "you made me get out of this bed" and shooting her favorite boy ... tripping, Tawala.

Tawala asked about arms purchasing but doesn't know that the Empire worked with the Mining Guild and the Banking Clans even after the New Order was established. Likewise, comics canon show that the Empire subcontracted a lot of weapons development, as does the Tie Defender program on Lothal.

Rick asked how Benicio del Toro (or as Mo called him, "Benicio del Lando," which was fair) knew about the small ships. While Poe was trying to mutiny, he told Finn about them while Benicio was hacking the door. Rick apparently missed that.

IN SUMMATION:

My final ranking of all the Star Wars films based on my tastes.

Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back

Episode 6: Return of the Jedi

Episode 8: The Last Jedi

Episode 2: Attack of the Clones

Episode 4: A New Hope

Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith

Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

Rogue One

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Episode 7: The Force Awakens, or whatever

Ideologically, the BBC's Will Gompertz wrote a review I pretty much agreed with that summed up my thoughts.

These are my opinions. In the immortal words of the philosopher Robert Ginyard, "you don't like it, so what? I don't care."

[summahsunlight]

Pathways, a series of drabbles

Title: The Force Tree

Word Count: 1372

Characters: Poe, Luke, Sela (OC), Kaleb (OC), Evelyn (OC), Kes (mentioned), Shara (mentioned)

AO3/Master List

Months after Shara’s death, her A-wing sat, covered in the garage.

Poe could barely look at it.  He missed his mother, he missed her soft presence, her laughter.  Most of all he missed their flying lessons.  Master Luke had taken him up in his X-wing a few times, and he was a great teacher, but for Poe, it wasn’t the same.  When he’d been up there with his mother, it was their special time—no one could bother his mother, no one could take time away from her being with her son—she had left a massive void in the little boy’s life.

His new place to hide was in the branches of the Force tree.  Poe found comfort in the tree, like no one could hurt him up there.  There was also a sense of loneliness.   Of course, Poe wasn’t really alone. Papa was there, Master Luke, Sela—the Skywalkers had been staying on the Dameron ranch since Shara’s passing.  He did like having Kaleb and Evelyn around to play with.

Still, even having his friends so close didn’t help the bouts of sadness. Especially on days that Papa barely spoke to him.  Poe would climb the Force tree and hide, wanting to disappear from Yavin, wishing that he could go where his mother had gone.

“Poe?” Sela called up to him. “Are you hungry? I made lunch for Kaleb and Evelyn.”

“A little,” Poe called back, wiping the tears from his cheeks. He could feel the air around the tree shift. It always felt warmer, brighter, when Sela was around.

“Well, come on down. And becareful! I don’t need you falling out of another tree.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Poe wiggled down the tree and before leaving, whispered that he would be back later. The branches fluttered in the breeze, as if it was saying goodbye to him. In the last few months, he had formed a bond with the tree. He knew most adults would probably think he was crazy for thinking so, but Poe knew it in his heart.  The Force tree thought he was special and that was needed at time when Poe was feeling not so special.

Sela placed her hand on his head as they walked back towards the ranch.  “Luke says the tree can sense light and dark; it senses a lot of light in you, Poe. Or so I’ve been told.  I’m not force sensitive; I just live with three people who happen to be very strong in the Force.”

So, his feelings that he had bonded with the tree were not so far-fetched. This warmed Poe’s heart.  However, Poe did not feel a lot of light inside of him at the moment.  It still hurt thinking about Mama and how much he missed her.

“Master Luke,” Poe said, softly as he approached the Jedi Knight. “Why did you give my mom the Force tree?”

“She helped me save it,” Luke replied, smiling at the little boy.  “Your mother risked her life to help me and I felt I should show my gratitude.  She was very excited to receive it.”

Poe sat down in the grass with Luke, crossing his legs.  He leaned forward, resting his arms over his knees.  “She tried to take me there; I think she wanted to tell me about the tree, but I… Master Luke I wasn’t interested. I just wanted her to teach me how to fly.”

Luke ran his fingers through the boys thick curls and sighed. Poe was having a difficult time dealing with Shara’s death. Better than his father, however.  Some days Kes didn’t even leave his bedroom.  Luke and Sela had taken up running the koyo farm as well as the Jedi Temple. The last few months had been hard on everyone on Yavin; Kaleb and Evelyn were getting tired of having to share a bedroom with Poe and they did not understand why they could not go back to their own home.  

Sela did not want to leave Kes.  She was worried about him, worried about what he might do.  As it was, if Sela wasn’t around preparing meals for them, Luke was certain that Poe and Kes would not eat.

“Your mother was not upset that you were not interested in the tree,” Luke assured the boy. “I know she loved your flying lessons.”

“I wanted to be a great pilot like her,” Poe murmured, tears in his eyes.

“Poe, you can still be that pilot.”

“How? I can’t leave Papa. He needs me.”

For one so young, Poe was fiercely loyal.  Luke grasped the boy’s shoulder and forced him to look up at him. “Poe. Your father would not want you to stay here on Yavin just because you think you cannot leave him.  Sela and I will look out for him while you’re gone.  I know that right now your father is in a rough place—it will get better.”

Poe wanted to believe that but to his eight-year-old eyes, it did not look like Papa was ever going to get better.  He knew that Papa spent a lot of time in bed, that the other adults were worried.  It took a lot of coaxing by Sela to get his father out of the bedroom the other day just to take a shower.  How could his father, once one of Han Solo’s Pathfinders, be so broken that he couldn’t even shower?  Poe blinked back his tears knowing that if Mama were here, that everything would have been fine.

But his mother wasn’t there; this was the reason that his father barely spoke, barely looked at him, barely moved.  It was the eason that Papa was barely alive. Poe wiped the tears from his eyes, he just needed to trust that what Master Luke said was true.  “Do you think I can show Kaleb and Evelyn the tree?”

Luke smiled at him. “I think they would like you to show it to them very much.”

Early the next morning, after Sela had made sure they ate some breakfast, Poe led Kaleb and Evelyn towards the Force tree.  He held Evelyn’s little hand in his own, walking at her pace while Kaleb skipped a head of him.  Poe always felt responsible for Evelyn when the children went off on their own. She was smaller than him and her brother and she could easily get hurt in the jungle. He never much cared for taking care of himself, something that his mother had often scolded him of—but then she would kiss his cheek and tell him he was a sweet boy for taking care of Evelyn.

Poe could feel the Force tree the closer they got, it was elated that he’d brought Kaleb and Evelyn.  Their identical blue eyes widened at the sight and Evelyn tugged on his hand, forcing him to walk faster.  She ran little fingers along the trunk, a smile growing across her face.

They played for hours that day in the shadow of the tree, and the Force tree beamed with joy as it watched over them.  Before long, the gas giant was beginning to rise in the sky as the sun set, casting the jungle around them in a red hue.  Sela was the one that came to retrieve them, stating that they had to be hungry since they had played outside all day long and not come home once for lunch. Poe announced he had snuck some koyo fruit with them and made sure Kaleb and Evelyn didn’t go hungry.

“Sweet boy,” Sela whispered, running her hands through his hair.  She picked Evelyn up off the ground, and with Kaleb eagerly chattering besides her, they went back towards the Damerons’ ranch for dinner.

“Good night, tree,” Poe said softly, hugging the trunk.  Briefly, he saw himself as a young man, in a flight suit. The Force tree was showing him his future—Master Luke had been right; he was going to be a pilot.

That night was the first time since Shara's death that Poe went to bed not feeling so sad or lonely.  He had his friends, he had Papa, and he had his tree.  Right now, Poe decided that was all he needed at eight-years-old.