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silver-and-stars · 5 years

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The Rise of Skywalker

Okay so TROS is out in France and I’ve just seen it. And I need to get all those feelings out of my chest.

SO SPOILERS !

Bottom line for those who don’t want to read the whole summary about Kylo/Ben :

- Rey is a Palpatine

- Rey force healing Ben by giving him her life energy

- Leia dies and it makes Ben gives up the dark side.

- Rey VS Palpatine

- Ben Solo comes to help.

- Rey defeats Palpatine but dies.

- Ben Solo gives her his life energy to bring her back to life. That’s the romantic grand gesture they were talking about.

- THEY KISS and immediately after HE DIES and his body DISAPPEARS

- Nothing more is shown and said about Ben, him turning good again or his sacrifice. It’s like only Rey know that and no one will ever learn the truth. Not even Chewie.

Now, onwards for the very long talk :

I hadn’t read the leaks, only the posts on tumblr following them : Rey blowing up the transport ship in which Chewie was in, Kylo Ren / Ben Solo dying and not being talk about again, it’s all true ! Expect that Chewie wasn’t really in the transport ship. He is fine.

More on the rest later but first Ben Solo’s redemption and death + Reylo.

So first off all, Rey goes on the wreck of the Death Star to find an item - a sith wayfinder, only two exist and Kylo has one - that could direct her to Palpatine’s lair, cause yeah, Palpatine is alive and he just lend the First Order a HUGE fleet of Star Destroyers, each equip with a Star Killer canon.

Palpatine is not doing well btw : he is vertically plugged to a machine, his eyes are white, their is missing flesh on his fingers... He hids on a sort of closed temple and has hundreds of Sith cultists (non-fighters) with him.

Kylo finds him and Plapatine tells him he made Snoke and the truth about Rey’s identity (which we don’t hear). He wants Kylo to find Rey and kill her and he will give him the Empire in exchange.

Instead Kylo warns Rey that Palpatine wants her dead and says he doesn’t care about Palpatine’s plans, he just want her to join him on the darkside. He tells her who she is : Palpatine’s grand-daughter. Palpatine had a son who ran away and hid in Jakku with Rey’s mom but the Emperor wanted to get his hand on Rey, presumably to kill her, so they sold Rey and lied about her not being on Jakku anymore before getting killed.

So anyway Rey isn’t taking all that information so well, even less since she had a vision (that we saddly don’t see) of her sitting beside Kylo on the throne of the Siths.

On the deathstar she has a vision of Darth Rey after touching the wayfinder, quite like Luke had of himself on Dagobah. She fights with herself and drops the wayfinder. Kylo picks it up and tells her the only way she will find Palpatine is if she comes with it and he crushed the wayfinder. Rey is seething with anger and fights Kylo very agressively, most of what he does is retreating. They end up outside, on the wreck, above a very agitated sea.

Rey is really close to giving in to her anger and go dark and Kylo finally starts to get the upper hand. And then Leia happens.

Leia who felt their battle, used the last of her strength to connect with his son. She says his name and Kylo feels she is dying. He spaces out and drops his saber. Rey stabs him in the stomach the same moment Leia dies. They both feels it. Rey shuts down her saber, Ben slides down on the floor. Rey cries and looks at Ben, he is staring blankly into space, looking like a lost boy. She kneels beside him and heals him, transferring life energy into him. She tells him he was right, she did wanted to take his hand, Ben’s hand. And she leaves in his ship.

Later we find Ben still on the wreck, standing and looking at the horizon. A voice says “Hey kid” and for a sec I thought it was Ghost Luke. But no ! Ben turns around and it’s Han !

Ben says he is just a memory, “your memory” answers Han. Ben says Ben Solo is dead and Han says that it’s Kylo Ren who is dead, and asks him to come home. And Ben says it’s too late, “she’s dead”. Earlier on we had a hint that Ben wanted to go back to her but he believed he had went to far on the wrong track to be able and allowed to go back. Now Han tells him that what Leia believed in and fought for is still alive. The following scene mirror the one on the Starkiller bridge in SW7, when he killed Han, an act that still haunts him in this movie. Ben says the same lines “I know what I have to do but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it.”. Han’s touches his face and tells him he does. Ben calls him “dad” in a heartwrecking tone and turn around to throw his lightsaber into the sea. When he turns back Han isn’t there anymore.

The next time we see him it’s on Palpatine’s lair. Rey got there and confronted Palpatine who told her he didn’t want her dead, he wanted her to kill him so his spirit would be transferred in her body. Of course she doesn’t want to do so and doesn’t plan on hating him either. But he opens up the roof of the temple and she can see the Resistance’s ships getting their asses kick by his fleet. He tells her that if she completes the rituel she will have control over his fleet and she could then save her new family (the Resistance).

And then she feels Ben. He is here in the temple, with only a loose shirt, pants and a blaster, reminding me of young Luke or young Han, he is fighting his way toward her but the knights of Ren have him cornered and he is now unarmed. Rey and him look into each other eyes using their force bound (that is now strong enough for them to transfer objects between them) and they nods in agreement. Rey pretends she will strike Palpatine down, just like Ben pretented he was going to kill Rey before Snoke. She rises her saber while Palpatine narrates, puts it behind her back and... it’s in Ben’s hands. He was a very endearing gesture there, like he is saying “now we’re talking” and he fights the knights of Ren, one against six, with a blue light saber. Meanwhile Rey has another lightsaber : Leia’s, that force ghost Luke gave her and she fights Palpatine’s guards.

Ben reaches her and they stand togeteher, in sync, before Palpatine. “you stand together. you die together” says Palapatine and he attacks them. But when he does the flesh on his finger is restored. He realized Rey and Ben have something very rare in the force, a bound, a dyad. And he absorbs their power to rejuvenate/heal himself. Rey and Ben fall unconscious on the ground. Palpatine now with his full power, unleashed massive a electric beam toward the ships and starts frying the Resistance (who in the meanwhile got backup from the whole galaxy).

Ben is the first to wake up but Palpatine throws him down a pit kinda like he was thrown in one by Vader. Then Rey wakes up, lies on her back and see the fleet, but beyond them she sees the stars and says “be with me”. Many jedi voices (Luke, Yoda, Qui-Gon, Anakin, Ashoka etc) answer tell her to get back up, that they are with her.

She takes her saber and rise on her feet. Palpatine directs his electicity toward her and she blocks it with her saber. He tells her it’s useless, she can’t defeat him as he is all of the Siths, she cannot win. But she grabs the second light saber and push back, says she is all the jedis, and Palpatine is vaporized by his own force lightining.

The victory is here. However Rey drops the saber and fall on the floor, unmoving, eyes open. Finn (who is force sensitive) fells that she is dead. But from the pit arise Ben. He is injured, limping, he falls several times in his way to reach her but when he finally falls near her, he grabs her and cradles her, looking desperate. Her body is limp, her eyes still open and unmoving. So he lies her down in his laps, closes his eyes and gives her his life energy. Of course it works ! And, knowing about the leaks I think “oh no. oh no. maybe they were wrong about this part at least” and “you mom and uncle would be so pround of you right now”. Rey wakes up, sits up, looks at him, puts his hand on his face. He is so relieved, she smiles and calls his name, “Ben”. And they KISS. BOUM CANON REYLO. And when they break the kiss he gives her a smile so relieved, happy and innocent, it breaks my harts. It breaks my heart because they hug (I think) and then he falls backward. Eyes closed, unmoving and his body disappears and as it does so does Leia’s ! No more Ben. All there is left are his clothes on the ground. And that’s it.

Rey says nothing, the scene just cut to the fleet coming home and celebrating. We see her rejogning the fleet in Luke’s X-Wing, then on their base where she happily reunites with BB-8, Poe and Finn. Then she goes on Tatooine, finds the Skywalker farm, buries Leai and Luke’s lightsaber together. She has made her own lightsaber. It’s yellow.

An old lady passes by and asks her who she is. She says “Rey” and looks on her right. There are Luke and Leia’s force ghosts standing side by side and I’m already dead inside. On Leia’s left there is a blank space. I expected Ben’s ghost to materialize there, like Anakin’s did beside Yoda and Obi-wan in SW4, to shows us Ben is still with her in some way and that he was at least reunited with his mother, thzt he is at peace with Luke and himself. But no, nothing. She says “Rey Skywalker”, watched Tatooine’s suns set and that’s it. Nothing more about Ben turning back good, nothing showing some people -at least Poe, Finn AND FUCKING CHEWIE - YOU KNOW, HIS KINDA-UNCLE CHEWIE, CHEWIE, BEN’S FATHER’S BEST-FRIEND, CHEWIE WHO LET OUT AND HEARTBREAKING CRY AND FELT ON HIS KNEES WHEN HE LEARNT LEIA) DIED, CHEWIE WHOSE THREE BEST FRIENDS (HAN, LUKE, LEIA]) DIED TRYIND TO REACH OUT TO BEN - learned that Ben saved Rey’s life, helped defeat Palpatine and in the end did the right thing. For all we know the galaxy still believes he is evil and died evil.

And really, if Rey went through all the trouble of separating from her friend and go on the Skywalker homeland - like she intended to live there- , couldn’t she just build up a life there with Ben. I can’t see how people would accept Ben and his redemption after he killed so many, including Han, and as he was such an important and feared figure of the First Order. But they could have lay low and live happily together on Tatooine and build a home and a family together there. A Palpatine and a Skywalker, united in peace and love. Two lost children, orphan now, creating their own home. A new start, a new life. But no. We don’t get that. Ben was too young to die in a Star Wars movie. This is not Rogue One wtf.

_____________

So yeah no, I’m not quite okay. The end was too quick. The movie was nice, it didin’t felt slow or dragging, there wasn’t any horses race scene. But the conclusion was too short, to abrupt imo. You needs to spend a little more time on it after three movies ! Or you know, since it’s the end of the Skywalker saga FUCKING NINE MOVIES. Gimme a 30 minutes long ending like in Return of the King. I’m okay with this ! I do want to know what became of the Resistance, of Finn, Poe, Chewie. I do want to see force ghost Ben (since you weren’t kind and hopeful enough to keep him alive).

Btw : R2D2 is barely in this movie and does almost nothing. It’s R2D2. Sure BB8 is cute but R2 as been around since Padmé ! He knows stuffs !! He is good at his job, let him save lives !

No canon Stormpilot. The queer character is has expect of an american Blockbuster own by Disney, a minor character (the lady who said in SW8 that Admiral Ackbar is dead and Leia in a coma) and she just kisses another lady for like 0.02 sec in a crowded scene.

No Rose x Finn either for that matter, not a word about the kiss, or their relation. Two new girls who have a romantic vibe with Poe or Finn, but it doesn’t lead anywhere fortunately.

Force ghost-Luke ! Memory-Han ! Leia (RIP) ! Lando (a bit) ! Chewie (still alive)! C3PO and R2 still alive ! Fucking PALPATINE wtf why were you not hinted at earlier ! CGI young-Luke and young-Leia traning in a forest ! Luke X-wing taking flight again ! The Millenium Falcon still up and running ! So many people from the old movies.

Also Qui-Gon Jinn’s voice. Strangely it conforted me to hear his voice but dammit gimme force ghost-Ben !

What else? Oh yeah Hux betrayed the First Order to get in Kylo’s way and got unmasked and killed. No one ever talked about him again.

Also BEN SOLO IS FREAKING DEAD ! So Ben, you were a betrayed and manipulated kid ? Manipulated by freaking Palpatine and betrayed by your uncle Luke ? You want to do the right now ? Well you will have to die for it!

No ! Keep him alive, have him earn is redemption by doing more for the good guys, to compensate the harm he has done. Or at least leave him in peace with his lover.

I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY KILLED OFF -ALL- THE SKYWALKERS ! We like them ! Keep the young and last one alive at least !

Also the whole Palpatine business is so abrupt. That’s a thing for three movies, or two at last, not just the last one.

But I enjoyed it anyway. But my heart is quite broken. And it’s the end of the trilogy and Skywalker bloodline and story and i don’t know what to do with this.

I wished they hadn’t reused the “reformed bad-guy saves someone he loves from the Emperor but dies by doing so” plot point from the Return of the Jedi. We had seen this already, you could have done something knew and less heartbreaking. Vader at done a lot more evil, willingly, not because he was confused and manipulated, he was old, barely living. But Ben ? Ben was ready to start anew on the right path, he was young and seemed hopeful after Rey came back to life. His parents and his uncle tried to save him from the dark side. But when he finally got away from it he dies ? Just dies like that ? I thought I was okay with the idea that his redemption meant his death, but it turns out I’m not, it doesn’t feels right.

Ben was a main charcater, one in whose redemption I was too much emotionnaly invested about to be okay with him dying like that, Vader style.

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silver-and-stars · 5 years

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Ben's fate and how it matters in the saga.

Story wise, behind all those breathtaking effects, the awesome music and the fast pace, this movie has many flaws. Like the out of nowhere Palpatine thing or screen time given to new and quite unimportant characters (not matter how cool or nice they are), instead of developing the ending/epilogue of characters we know and care about (what become of Chewie, R2, Finn, Poe once the war has ended ? As the war ended ? Have all the worlds freed themselves so easily ? Why did Rey decided to go on Tatooine, what is she doing now ?).

But I'm really surprised by how badly I take Ben's death. Not Kylo's, Ben's. I didn't cared much about Kylo but he was never just Kylo, he was Ben underneath, the child of Leia and Han, the last Skywalker, the last chance for this family to change their fate. And I grew to care about Ben Solo.

I'm also surprised by how much I dislike the whole Rey Palpatine thing. I'd rather she had stay a nobody or was a Kenobi somehow (like maybe Obi-Wan had siblings and nieces and nephew) rather than a Palpatine. It gives a foul taste to everything.

I'm not not-okay with Palpatine still being alive, I knew for a long time he could to that in the novels. But this what not this story. It wasn't about the return of Palpatine and the fight of his granddaughter against him. If it has been they should have shown it sooner.

This was about the final fate of the Skywalker. And what we get is that they all died. They failed their child or nephew and they died. And he died too.

This movie has shown me see more of the man in a fighter who couldn't shot at his mother's spaceship. A mother he never got to see again btw. Not even as a force ghost for what we know.

It made me care more about Ben, made me see who he was behind years of manipulation, misguiding and emotional and even physical abuse. I came to pity him and to like him.

And they kill him off, snatched him away from us and from life (and tbh from us).

I didn't think I'd say or even think this but yeah, I'd rather Rey had died. I'd rather Rey have waking up and giving him back his energy as a second chance to life, a final act of trust and hope in him, in his good side, an act that would steady him on the path of the light, pushing him to right his wrongs for the rest of his life in honor of her and his mother's memory and to redeem himself. She'd have died in an act final selfless act of optimism.

All his life Ben's family feared and distrusted him, not knowing he was influenced by Snoke/Emperor Palpatine.

I'm not for women dying just to give men angst but it's not that. Like I didn't felt like Leia died to give Ben angst. She died in a final act of hope there was still good in her son. She died to save him.

I'd rather have the hopeful jedi giving up her life to save someone who is breaking out of the dark side and trying to walk in the path of the Light Side. An act of trust in his capacity to be and to do good.

And, since we end up with a Palpatine/Skywalker dynamic, I'd rather have a Palpatine die for/because of a Skywalker than the reverse.

But now, knowing this is the final fate of Anakin and Padme's descendants, the fate of the disciple of Luke and of Leia and Han's child… it makes the whole saga taste bitter and feel sad, borderline depressing.

It makes me feel like Palpatine won and in a sense that Obi-Wan failed, since the Skywalkers never got to restore balance and they all die.

Hey I've just noticed we've lost two Ben is this saga : "Ben" Kenobi and the child named after him ! How merry.

It makes this new trilogy pointless because what was shown was that Ben wasn't a bad man and when he finally managed to escape the dark side he died for it, way too young.

Is this actually the story of Anakin's descendants being punished through loneliness, pain and misery for his crime of betraying the Jedi Order and murdering the children ? Cause it feels like it.

Where is the hope in that ?

Also you're telling me now that Rey who was and still is force-bounded to now-dead Ben, who was in love with him and saw his true self, the Ben underneath the Kylo, and wanted to save him, you tell me she has to go to sleep every night and wake up every morning knowing Ben died to save her life ?

You're saying there was nothing Ben could do after turning back to the light side and doing the right thing but die ?!

And don't give me the whole "it's more realistic this way" speech ! This is not a random sci-fi, this is Star Wars. The story of the Skywalker have been there for 40 years ! It has theme parks, novels, series, kid shows, games ! It is a cultural thing, it has an impact on people's life ! There are many many fans who care about it. And at the core and source of it, is the story of the Skywalkers. After all that talking about hope in the movies, you could have made its end hopeful !

Also, regardless of the fact she is good, you're telling me the person who now inhabits the house where Shmi Skywalker is buried and where Luke Skywalker grew up is a Palpatine. And not because the Palpatine and Skywalker bloodline united or not because she was adopted into the family but because the last Skywalker died, seconds after experimenting the first moments of true happiness and peace in his life, because of Emperor Palpatine. Or if we look at the facts because of two Palpatine since he died giving Rey his life.

Also I know he saved Rey, a good person, out of love but in a way, on principles, it feels wrong that this man who was manipulated since the cradle by Palpatine, and whose grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, uncle suffered because of Palpatine, dies because of Emperor Palpatine and to save Palpatine's heir.

I never liked Kylo much but neither did I hated him or Ben and I quickly saw he wasn't the villain of the story so I didn't disliked him for being a "bad" new villain. Cause he wasn't.

And I did thought it would be okay if Kylo redeemed himself by dying. Like in a impulsive, moment like Vader. At the last minute he betrays the dark side and dies saving Rey or the Resistance.

But that's not what we got.

What we got was Ben who finally broke free of the dark side's grasp, after he FELT HIS MOM, our Princess Leia, DIE. This Ben who comes to help Rey. A Ben those outfit and gestures reminded me of Han Solo, a Ben free at last (look how he moves, how he fights), a Ben looking as if he was meant to hold a blue lightsaber like his uncle Luke. This Ben breaking down before the dead body of the last person he cared about and sacrificing his life to save her.

You should have let him live, let him meet good people, makes healthy connexion, work to earn their forgiveness, let him heal. Don't just get rid of him !

… Damn, they've killed both mother and son in this movie !

This is not hopeful. Hopeful is him and Rey living and happy, or at least happier, together or not. I'm a reylo shipper but damn I'd rather it never happened that having Ben Solo, the last Skywalker, son to the deceased Princess Leia and deceased Han Solo, last descendant of Anakin and Padme Skywalker (and i do mean Anakin, not Vader), dies at a young age after years of grooming and abuse.

I cared about Anakin, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan who had believed in him, I cared about Padme, Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie. So I care about Ben when we finally got to see more of him.

With his history and the history of his family, it's not enough that he manages to turn back to the light side, an act that isn't just like turning off and on a switch when you've been groomed since childhood by an evil man (Snoke/Palpatine).

It's not a good and hopeful enough ending for this family. He should be good yes but living and happy too. In my heart I can't believe Han or Leia ever thought it would be okay if he died, as long as he went back to the light side.

I've talked about the novel before. In it Han and Leia do have a son who turns to the dark side and dies, turning good again in the last moment to protect the woman he loves. But they also had a daughter. Luke had a son. I think their son even had a kid.

The Skywalker bloodline and family didn't end with their son's death.

In this movie this is the final fate of the Skywalkers. This is how their story ends. With sacrifice, loneliness and death.

Ben character was more important than I first thought. But now I see what his death as Ben -not his life as Kylo- ruins.

Now I think I understand why it affects me like it does.

The more I think about it, the more the truth and reality of Ben being dead sinks in, the sicker I feel.

This is a downer ending for the Skywalker family.

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