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#ep ix rots
darlin-djarin · 10 months
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List of Star Wars Medias
navigating star wars is tricky and complex but here's everything (mostly) in order based off of the timeline. some of the medias overlap.
Prequel Trilogy Era (Galactic Republic)
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars: The Clone Wars [the movie]
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Szn. 1 - Szn. 7 Ep. 9)
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Szn. 7 Ep. 10 - Szn. 7 Ep. 12) [you don't have to watch ROTS before you watch these last episodes ^^ it's just what fits better on the timeline]
transition era from prequel trilogy era to original trilogy era (galactic empire/rebellion)
Tales of the Jedi [takes place in different times throughout the prequel era (everything above) so the order of watching this show doesn't matter but it's best to watch it after the clone wars most likely]
Star Wars: The Bad Batch
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Star Wars: Rebels
Andor [season 1 takes place same time as rebels season 1, 5 BBY]
Original Trilogy Era (Galactic Empire/Rebellion)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
transition era from original trilogy era to sequel trilogy era (new republic)
The Mandalorian (Szn. 1 - Szn. 2)
The Book of Boba Fett (Szn. 1)
Ahsoka [takes place after mando s2 and close proximity to mando s3]
The Mandalorian (Szn. 3)
Sequel Trilogy (New Republic)
Star Wars: Resistance [overlaps with the sequel movies so i suggest you watch the movies first before starting this]
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
Extra, but not necessary
Star Wars Visions [no specific timeline. highly recommend]
Star Wars: Clone Wars [the 2d cartoon show, not the 3d. not necessary to watch. takes place during clone wars, obvs]
Star Wars: Droids [takes place after the bad batch and before the solo movie]
The Star Wars Holiday Special [takes place after a new hope and before empire strikes back]
Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure [takes place after empire strikes back and before return of the jedi]
Ewoks: The Battle for Endor [takes place after empire strikes back and before return of the jedi]
The Ewoks [takes place after empire strikes back and before return of the jedi]
Important things to note:
"BBY" stands for "before battle of yavin". "ABY" stands for "after battle of yavin". like B.C. and A.D., it's how the star wars universe counts their years for some reason. 0 BBY takes place during Episode IV: A New Hope, where the battle of yavin literally happened.
prequel trilogy was widely hated when it came out, mostly by toxic dudebros. the fandom HAS healed, and now it's regarded well and favorited often. sequel trilogy is widely hated and continues that way, for some reason. original trilogy is loved.
there ARE inconsistencies within the media. some media will contradict others and it's just something you gotta accept.
legends is a non-canon thing. idk anything about it but if you hear anything about legends, it's not canon to the storyline, though it's useful to pull resources and concepts from.
some people may or may not switch up the order of things based off of the years going off of BBY and ABY, and that's fine. this is just the list i use that i think is easiest to follow.
following up on the point above ^^ some of the clone wars episodes are out of order, timeline wise, but that doesn’t affect watching experience or anything. if you want to find the episodes in timeline order, i’m sure a bit of research will get you a list easily.
enjoy!
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ferruginousthahawk · 5 years
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couldn’t get this out of my head so here you go
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who-talks-first · 5 years
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Ho-ho-ho-holeeee shiiittt!
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madi-main · 5 years
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Uhhh u kno but... What if... Palpatine made Ray the same way Anakin was made?
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unexpectedreylo · 3 years
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Yes, It’s Been Half A Decade Since TFA Was Released
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Five years already?  Geez!
If you’ve been following my humble Tumblr blog since the beginning, you’ll know I was not truly a Reylo until I saw TLJ.  Before then, I was dealing with a movie that left me with a lot of mixed feelings.  Why?  I missed George Lucas for one thing.  He has an indelible style that few can match and few really cared about that universe and its characters as much as he did.  I was very unhappy to hear a month before TFA’s release that Disney tossed out his story and came up with something he didn’t really like very much (as later confirmed in Bob Iger’s memoir).  As a long-suffering prequels fan I didn’t like either the vaguely anti-prequel tone the pre-release hype took.  Whatever you do in life, don’t disrespect the man who created the GFFA. 
The post-release hype probably annoyed me even more.  Remember the doofuses screeching on t.v. that it was the best SW movie since TESB?  LOL.  (No, that would be ROTS and the only thing that came close since was TLJ.)  I hated that a movie I felt was flawed not only got passes from the media that really trashed Lucas and everybody who worked on the prequels, but also got lavish Best 10 lists and award nominations.  I was one bitter chickie for a while and later got a good laugh out of the backlash.
I thought it would be funny to post what I thought at the time, with added commentary:
Oh yes, the movie. My mother called it…it’s good, we all enjoyed it and were entertained, but Lucas’s touch is definitely missing. The romantic epic sweep of Eps I-VI, the goofy and whimsical touches, the feeling of being immersed in another galaxy, and Lucas’s gift for aesthetics aren’t there. The visuals don’t have that beauty and some of it is kinda ugly. The creature designs just aren’t as good. It’s not the kind of movie you watch dozens of times to catch little things. Even John Williams doesn’t have a knockout track like “Duel of the Fates” or “The Imperial March.” But it’s hard to think of how this was ever going to live up to any of it any more than I’d expect Suzanne Collins to write a Narnia book as good as C.S. Lewis. We lost those things when we lost Lucas.
I like the visuals a lot more now but TLJ’s cinematography rules the ST.  Still feel the same about creature design; I see better aliens and creatures on The Mandalorian.  One weird thing about the ST is how the filmmakers seemed to have avoided putting in anything at all that we’ve seen before.  No Jawas, no Togrutas, no Twi’leks, no Zabraks, no Quarren, etc.. Just Chewbacca and Admiral Ackbar.
The music didn't leave much an impression on me at the time but now I love “Rey’s Theme,” “Kylo Ren’s Theme,” and “March of the Resistance.”
As long as we’re on that note, I’ll get to the film’s flaws first. The movie has a lot of snappy, arch, and funny dialogue but you can tell the script was cranked out in a hurry. It lacks the careful structure of its predecessors and cribs a little too much from ANH. Poe disappears and you are led to believe he’s dead then he suddenly shows up healthy and hale with no explanation. Abrams’s first Star Trek film was riddled with unbelievable coincidences and unfortunately this movie has some of those too, such as when Han and Chewie just happen upon the Falcon in space. The film does very little to set up what’s going on and why, such as why the hell is the Republic fighting the same a-holes after all of these years. Abrams prefers instead to keep the action going instead of doing much exposition, which is pretty much what he did with the Trek films. Those little moments in Lucas’s Star Wars films don’t happen much here. Things must always be occurring, which dumps all of the responsibility for character development and world building on Rian Johnson and Colin Trevorrow. I have no idea why they decided to be all teasy-weasy with who Rey’s parents are instead of just telling us. (I suspect Luke is her father.)
LOL!   I guess the adoption by proxy thing at the very end of TROS proved me right or...did it?  Yes, my first assumption after seeing TFA was that Rey and Kylo Ren were cousins.
As for the rest of it, I still feel the same.  Rushed script, borrows too much from ANH, precious few explanations/set-up, not as good structure but still full of humor.
BB-8 is a charmer, Finn and Rey (who are so going to hook up) HA!  But remember I thought Rey and Kylo were cousins! have some charm and potential growth as characters, and it was great seeing our old crew again even if not under ideal circumstances. (Personally I would’ve preferred NOT to have broken up Han and Leia.) Hux had some mustache-twirling moments and Abrams was at least smart enough not to kill off him, Ren, or Snoke just yet. Finn and Poe have a good rapport (maybe they’re going to hook up).
Stormpilot definitely pinged the slash-dar.  It was completely unsurprising to find fans shipping them.
Abrams seemed to have avoided the mistake James Cameron made in “Avatar” when he killed off his most threatening villain while planning sequels. As you might have guessed, I was really shocked at Snoke’s death in TLJ.  I wasn’t expecting that until IX.  I was also really shocked at the casual, quick-get-rid-of-him ways both Hux and Ben were killed off in TROS.
The most compelling aspect of TFA for me was the Skywalker family drama, which made me wish it was more up front rather than a subplot. Ben Solo/Kylo Ren is a conflicted guy with a huge chip on his shoulder and it makes you wonder exactly what happened to him because I think he may have mental issues. Leia knows there’s still good in him but can a guy who commits patricide be saved? (RIP Han…I so knew this would happen because I figure it was the only way Ford would’ve done another film). Can his cousin/half-sister or whatever Rey save him? Would she want to? With Luke back in the picture and Artoo activated again, what will happen next? Even though they split up Han and Leia I liked the banter between them; it’s sad because they clearly still loved each other.
This is still true for me.  A few days after posting this it struck me just how nihilistic TFA was because I found Han and Leia’s split unnecessary (had Han gone out for Chinese food or on a mission for the Resistance instead of just being a loser smuggler, it wouldn’t have changed anything that happened in the film) and what I thought was Kylo’s certain fate to be a narrative bummer.  TLJ made me think they weren’t going on that direction only to be proven right in TROS (sadly).
I’ll dispense with the stupid Snoke is Plageuis theory and my dad wondering if Finn was Mace Windu’s lost son or something, though I’ll give him half a point for Finn turning out to be Force-sensitive after all.
I don’t know why people have said this takes them back to the ’70s because the film really is a 2015 movie made for an audience reared largely on the MCU, YA flicks, and other staples of contemporary geek culture. It is what it is and we aren’t going to get back the films of George Lucas and his influence. TFA might not be an awesome Star Wars movie but it is at least a good sci-fi action flick.
I still stand by most of this.  Time and TLJ made TFA a better movie in my eyes.
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themattress · 3 years
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First of all, I still have to maintain that Doug is the more reasonable of the Walker Bros. when it comes to Star Wars, he makes some solid points here, and does a great job at seeing the other side (the general movie-going public) and accurately verbalizing why they enjoyed the film even if he as a critic did not, while treating it as a valid perspective. Good on you, Doug.
With that said....
“Everything comes out of nowhere” - Obviously. J.J Abrams set things up in TFA, and Rian Johnson didn’t use them in TLJ. With Abrams back, it’s only natural these things will pop up with sadly less set-up than they should have had. It sucks, but you really ought to note why it happened that way or else you’re being disingenuous.
“The movie never takes a breath and lets characters react” - Wait, what about that scene after Chewie’s supposed death? Or with Poe and Zorii on the rooftop? Or when Rey talks to Finn about what she’s learned and how angry she feels about Palpatine killing her parents? Or the scene with Kylo Ren and the memory of his father? Or Poe at Leia’s bedside and talking with Lando? Aren’t those all pretty subdued moments where characters just react and take in what’s been happening? Did you miss those scenes?
“It’s like a video game, jumping from exposition to action and so on” - Oh, and other movies in the series such as A New Hope, Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens weren’t? Seriously, go rewatch just the whole sequence inside the Death Star in A New Hope, it literally plays like a mission-by-mission video game! 
“It’s not like The Last Jedi left much to go on and threw out set-up from The Force Awakens” - NOW you acknowledge this point somewhat, but you still don’t go far enough. There was literally NO set-up left behind by TLJ beyond what we opened the whole series with: Rebels vs. Empire and Light Side of the Force vs. Dark Side of the Force. Everything else seemed wrapped up to the point where TLJ felt like a potential finale to the saga, especially with its last scene. TROS was in a much tougher position than ROTS or ROTJ because of that lack of set-up, it’s why Colin Trevorrow couldn’t produce anything satisfactory (in spite of what some may have you believe.)  As John Boyega put it, it was a “mess” Abrams had to “fix”. And I’m personally glad for it ‘cause Trevorrow never should’ve been on Ep. IX to start with!
“The movie should have just focused on Rey and Kylo Ren” - Here’s the problem with that, quite literally the problem Lucasfilm was facing: Kylo Ren cannot be the trilogy’s Final Boss. He was already thrashed by Rey at the end of TFA and then humiliated by Luke at the end of TLJ. He served as Final Boss for both those films and lost both times, and by necessity he had to lose at the end of Ep. IX as well. How pathetic would that look? The Big Bad of the Sequel Trilogy gets his ass handed to him every goddamn time! I love Kylo Ren as a character and Adam Driver as an actor, but he couldn’t carry Ep. IX to its conclusion. Despite what you and others say, the fact of the matter is that Palpatine DID belong here. From both an in-universe perspective and a meta perspective, it was an inevitability.
Otherwise, solid video for Disneycember as usual. Keep it up.
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bellaire26 · 4 years
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why TROS ultimately fails as an ending to the saga
as a disclaimer, I actually enjoy TROS. it’s a good movie, probably an 8.5/10 in my expert opinion. it’s Star Wars’s version of a horror movie, and I mean no insult when I say that. it’s genuinely scary, Exegol being the ultimate haunted house. but I’m not here to praise the film today, unfortunately. and let me add on to my original statement- I enjoy TROS up until Ben’s death. 
I bring this all up now based on what Dave Filoni says in the new Mandalorian docuseries on Disney+, ep 2 “Legacy”.
“So George has this hopeful story, and it’s something that he’s reiterated most times I’ve seen him, you know, after we’ve been making things without him is, ‘Remember to make these stories hopeful. Remember to give that to kids because they really need it.’ And so that’s something to keep in mind.“
I was not hopeful when I saw Rey look into the sunset, sunrise whatever the hell you want to call it at the ending of TROS. I was in tears. I’m still a kid, technically and I had to watch a character that I loved so much, had fought for so much, watched him finally do what I’d hoped he would for four years do it, and die. and get no funeral, no acknowledgement. because apparently, if you do everything you can to right your wrongs and make things right and repent it’s still not enough. it will still catch up with you.
and to be honest, I think I ended up internalizing that, especially during the whole pandemic. no matter what I do, what I have control over, it can all end horribly and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. I can’t have a happy ending if the universe decides I’m not worthy of one.
It really breaks my heart because it’s only now that I’ve given thought to that, after being selfishly pondering my own pain after Ben’s death. What do the little kids that looked up to Ben Solo, who saw him go from a bad guy to a good guy, a prince running in to save the woman he loved? who dies at the end, after doing whatever it took to repent for what he’d done? that if you do something wrong, there is nothing you can do to fix it? is that honestly what JJ and CT thought was the best way to end the saga? on a note where all of the Skywalkers are dead and a woman who can either have the man she loves or be a strong character? to look on into the same place we all started, now seeming to have really gone nowhere at all? 
this is why TROS fails. not necessarily as a Star Wars film, but as an ending to the saga itself. it fails to give hope and overall a happy ending. not just that good prevails over evil, but that we go somewhere new, that we are not stuck looking to the horizon. that our journey’s go somewhere, that we get out of our small towns and go find happiness. that our pasts don’t weigh us down, that we can be forgiven. that we can forgive ourselves. that there is hope if we look for it that things are going to get better, that it won’t be this way forever. that I won’t be stuck in my god forsaken house until the end of days. 
this is what Episode IX should have given us and instead it shit all over what Star Wars originally stood for, which was hope.
RotS. We see Owen and Beru holding Luke, looking into the sunset for the hopeful future we know we will see, even after the immense tragedy we just watched. TCW. a newly formed Darth Vader finds the lightsaber of his lost apprentice, seemingly confirming her death. he takes it with him, a reminder of his care and love for her, showing that Anakin Skywalker isn’t really gone. Rebels. the war is over, but Ezra is not gone, and Sabine and Ahsoka are going to find him. (Kanan’s death was even hopeful and cathartic- he died saving those he loved, came back to guide his apprentice one last time, showing that he’d never leave him. this is incomparable to Ben’s death as Kanan was given a proper sendoff and his death moved the story forward because Ezra needed to step up. Ben’s death in TROS hurts the overall message and plot) RotJ. the war is won, everyone is together, and Anakin Skywalker has been redeemed and finally has been able to let go of the people he loves selflessly and his suffering has ended. 
TROS? I don’t even think I have to explain at this point. but we end up right where we begin, a place the original protagonist so desperately wanted to leave. (seriously who the hell thought that was a good idea. gross.)
in spirit of my whole point, I sincerely believe that Dave Filoni said this in response to TROS. he obviously had no creative control, and I imagine wants to do something about it. he arguably saved the once hated prequels before, and can easily do it again. maybe that means an animated TV show, or now with his Mandalorian experience, a live action with a returning cast. that’s best case scenario, but either way one to hope for. because Rey’s story is definitely not over, and I believe that Ben’s is intertwined in that, and the ending to the saga that it deserves.
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thebigmick284 · 4 years
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Quick thoughts of the Star Wars saga after rewatching...
Don’t really feel like doing a big essay so...
Ask questions if you want some more clarifications.
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Episode I Episode II
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Episode III
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Solo                                                                                                                      Episode VI                                                                                                      Episode VII
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Episode VIII                                                                                                        Episode IX
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Rogue One                                                                                                      Episode IV                                                                                                      Episode V
Messy thoughts ahead.
Basically I found the prequels worse than I remembered. Lucas writing and direction really are terrible. They can be skipped entirely and you won’t miss a thing or if you have to watch Eps II and III. Ep I literally doesn’t bring anything important to the table. Ep II’s romance between Anakin and Padme is abysmally written, Anakin feels REALLY creepy when he comes onto Padme. Ep III is the best of the bunch but feels really rushed in key areas- like Anakin’s turn to the dark side. I also hate how Padme was just Anakin’s wife in this movie, she only feels in character with the ‘so this liberty dies’ birth of the Empire scene and she just dies of what? Heart break? WTF!
After the prequels Solo felt like a breath of fresh air. Solid competent writing and direction and it was lots of fun. Rogue One is fantastic, it’s more of a prequel than the prequels! So many nods to ANW, fantastic action sequences and it leads perfectly into it.
ANW and TESB are still pretty much perfect classics. They hold up really well and everything gels together. ROTJ feels like it should have been two movies, as it ties up everything almost too neatly and too quickly, Han and Leia don’t really do much, ANOTHER Death Star but it still has lots of great moments worth of the other two.
I love the sequel trilogy, I can’t now take anyone serious if they really think the prequels are better. For not being planned out they still flow pretty well watching back to back even if things feel a little too fast at times ie Rey’s training/jedi growth. There’s just a lot of love put in them. Much more than the prequels as well. I love all of the new cast. TROS felt much better on rewatch, felt more of a finale then ROTJ did and bringing Palpatine back was the right move to tie it all together (although linking Rey to him could have been done better).
Overall...
TESB>ANW>R1>TROS=TLJ>ROTJ=TFA=S>>>ROTS>AOTC>TPM
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happymetalgirl · 4 years
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March 2020
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Wow, March seems like such a bygone era, time doesn’t mean anything anymore with so much turned upside down (especially in the music industry) in the throes of the pandemic going on right now. One of those things was me losing my punctuality with this blog. While I haven’t been on top of my writing, I have certainly been listening as much as ever, with plenty to talk about this month, so better late than never I suppose. Here are the albums I listened to during March.
Code Orange - Underneath
I just wrote about the Pittsburgh metalcore juggernauts’ highly anticipated fourth full-length, but I’ll summarize again what led me say that Underneath is a good album, but not as good as the breakthrough album whose high bar this album was always going to have a hard time clearing. The band go all in on the industrial elements that accented Forever on Underneath, as well as push their luck on the more melodic, alternative metal-oriented hardcore tracks, which came with some growing pains, the latter more than the former. And I really think that they probably are just growing pains with the band getting more comfortable with this expansion of their sound, which (contrary to what the many zealous 10/10 reviews are saying) I think the band will get significantly better with if they keep this trajectory going into their next album.
8/10
Body Count - Carnivore
I really have tried to focus on the positive aspects of Body Count’s music, the fearless, topical, confrontational lyricism and the capacity the band has to generate a good hardcore breakdown, but the band really do seem to be unable to get out of this one-dimensional rut they’re stuck in, with Carnivore simply a few shovels deeper in. The band’s appeal tires very quickly with Ice-T’s recycling of lyrical themes and his band’s repetitions of generic hardcore tropes. They come through with a few moments of intensity, a sick breakdown or two, but the positive, hopeful moments are too few and far between. I would think that with not a whole lot of competition and a hip hop icon behind the microphone that Body Count would have the capacity to do more for rap metalcore, but they seem stuck in a cycle I do respect the stances Body Count takes against injustice, and I want them to be a more prominent, important voice in metal, but they have some climbing to do to get there.
4/10
My Dying Bride - The Ghost of Orion
The grand masters of gothic death-doom don’t ever really steer too far off course, rather they sometimes just take their foot off the gas, as they do on The Ghost of Orion. It has all the elements of any beautifully melancholic My Dying Bride album; the slow and burgeoning guitars, the downtrodden vocal melodies juxtaposed with bursts of growled anguish, and the melodrama of vibrato-laden strings; but it’s all arranged and conjured without much tangible passion or pain. That’s by the standard of the band’s pretty solid discography though, so with that considered, it’s by no means a terrible death-doom album, it just won’t be converting anybody or getting anyone more excited about My Dying Bride and death-doom.
6/10
Warp Chamber - Implements of Excruciation
Brutal death metal can often seem pretty one-dimensional, and it often is, but in the hands of a band who really has the ambition to make more of it than just some guttural rumblings from all the instruments involved, the genre can really take on a wholy new monstrous form, its horrific, deathly instrumentation heightened by the melody and the compositional nuance that a competent band can bring to it, and that is exactly what Warp Chamber do on their debut album here. Full of cavernous growls and ceaseless low-register battery, it can seem, at face value like just a regular brutal death metal album, but when the band starts breaking out the winding tangents and manic solos that, again, just heighten the chaos and compliment the brutality. It’s more than just regular-ass death metal, and I’m glad to have heard this debut. I hope Warp Chamber has more in store.
8/10
Loathe - I Let It in and It Took Everything
Do you love Deftones? Maybe you do. I do. But I don’t think either of us love Deftones as much as Loathe loves Deftones. I’m goofing right now, but Loathe really do channel their Deftones fandom real hard when they’re not in full hardcore mode or getting eccentric with the segues on this album. And it does offer a great combination of styles, with angular, low-tuned modern metalcore noise riffage juxtaposed pretty strongly against the gauzy shoegaze that immediately hearkens to that facet of Deftones’ music. The band struggle to get the flow just right on certain songs and across the album in general, with some pretty inconsistent songwriting, but it’s definitely outweighed by its still somehow immersive quality and the strength of the individual pieces going into it.
7/10
Earth Rot - Black Tides of Obscurity
The Australian band brings forth some more of the tried and true modern death metal a la Bloodbath, Carnation, and modern Cannibal Corpse, but with enough eerie, blackened oddity throughout the songs to keep the journey from being too homogenous. It’s these moments that both give extra life to the bludgeoning, but at-times basic, modern death metal the band is conjuring and kind of disrupt the flow of that muscly death metal. At times I do wish the band would chose to focus one or the other more exclusively, but if this pushes Earth Rot further into this kind of stylistically ambitious death metal, I appreciate the stepping stone this album acts as.
7/10
Myrkur - Folksange
After riding a pretty strong wave of critical adoration for her contribution to the growing wave of atmospheric black metal that culminated in the respectably sonically unique Mareridt in 2017, Myrkur’s Amelie Bruun has taken a step back to refocus or recalibrate artistically. As the title suggests, Folksange finds its creator rewarding herself for her contributions to black metal with a return to her love of Scandinavian folk music, and you can tell she loves it on this entirely folk-music-based project devoid of any black metal elements. I may not have been as head-over-heels as a lot of critics were about her black metal albums, but I certainly appreciated her folk-inspired ambient take on the genre, especially the unique sonic pallet of Mareridt. I liked those albums quite a bit, yet it is clear that the sound on Folksange is her forte, which makes sense if Scandinavian folk has been a longer-standing passion than black metal for Bruun. The instrumentation is absolutely beautiful and Bruun’s angelic voice fits so perfectly with it, but Folksange is more than just superficially aesthetically gorgeous. The songs (old and original) are written and arranged with such a natural knack for the style that makes it such a serenely enveloping experience that stands as Myrkur’s best work yet. I highly recommend it.
8/10
Old Man Gloom - Seminar IX: Darkness of Being
The famed supergroup’s first of two releases planned for this year after the loss of Caleb Scofield sees them dabbling around in an experimental array of genres that all the members have some sort of significant experience and specialty with. From post-metal of the sludgy, Isis-esque variety to the more noisily esoteric, Sumac-esque variety, to distinctly post-hardcore-influenced stylistic diversions, the band’s wide-reaching sound takes all sorts of twists and turns along their most recent experiment with the members’ varying pedigrees and influences guiding the music on quite the unusual nomadic trek. From the repetitive chord progression of the opening track to the album’s noisy finishing tracks (one of which features what sounds like rocks tumbling down a shaft of some sort for an extensive period of time), the band let their adventurers’ instincts guide them as they wander through their own experiment through the interplay of their members’ various styles. It’s weird, and not super polished, but it’s certainly fixating.
7/10
Candlemass - The Pendulum
After further cementing their relatively unchallenged status as the kings of epic doom metal with The Door to Doom about a year ago, Candlemass have offered up a quick little demo-focused EP with one new fleshed-out song, the title track, which takes them to the faster, more Dio-era-inspires side of their sound with the grand, soaring operatic vocals on the chorus and the relatively fast (by doom standards) guitar rhythms on the verses (think “Paranoid” or “Children of the Grave’). I love the very Dio-esque delivery of the word “fools” at the end too, very fitting. The demo track “Snakes of Goliath” slows it back down to Ozzy-era Sabbath worship in typical Candlemass fashion, the riffs and arrangement pretty respectable for a supposed demo track. The other full-length demo, “Porcelain Skull”, by contrast, does feel much less compositionally fleshed out and more like an actual demo piece. The other three demo tracks are just little instrumental studio doodles that don’t really add anything to the EP. If this EP could be interpreted as any kind of power move, it’s that Candlemass at demo level have just such a sharp compositional intuition for grand Sabbath doom metal and can pretty much nail it in their sleep.
demo-level 7/10
Igorrr - Spirituality and Distortion
I was definitely looking forward to this album big-time after the gloriously unashamed weirdness of 2017’s Savage Sinusoid filled a massive void I felt was needed in my metal bank. By contrast, Spirituality and Distortion is such a reserved project it feels either shy or cowardly from the usually hyper-eccentric band. The greater absence of the vocals of Laurent Lunoir on the album highlight also just how much character he brought to Savage Sinusoid through his zany performances. Without his vocal wildness across the album, the attention on Spirituality and Distortion is then directed to the significantly timid production and electronic finagling that doesn’t measure up to that of Savage Sinusoid.
6/10
In This Moment - Mother
*Sigh* In This Moment is one of those bands who I think really do show a lot of potential but just can’s seem to reach it. They get a lot of unnecessary shit for Maria Brink’s sexy stage presence and generally theatrical aesthetic and live show, but they do have the capacity to produce emotive alt metal ballads like “Whore” and bangers like “Big Bad Wolf” that give some insight into what heights they could potentially reach if they were much more consistent. I was hoping that Mother would be a solid rejuvenation/comeback after the benign disappointment of 2017′s Ritual, and while it’s certainly different, it’s not better. Mother really tries to take on this big, enveloping sound, and biblical, post-apocalyptic feel, and it can sort of carry it for a little bit and be temporarily immersive until the band needs to go full force. When it’s just some fancy eerie atmosphere and Maria Brink’s sultry vocal delivery, it holds up okay, but when the horribly synthetically produced arena-booming instrumentation really comes in and breaks that immersion, you remember that it really is all just trite alt rock whose lofty flair is all a facade.
4/10
Mamaleek - Come and See
Undoubtedly the most wildly experimental album to grace my ears so far this year, I was not expecting such a forceful avant-garde project from Mamaleek so relatively soon after Out of Time, but damn I’m glad I got it! The anonymous brotherly duo have always taken black metal on quite the far-off journey whenever they bring it along on one, ever making it their mission to create something one-of-a-kind with their work, and Come and See has to be their most enthralling album yet. Ramming together the transfixing manic anguish of their blackened experimental noise with the angular dynamism of jazz and even some blues rock in a musical particle collider, Mamaleek have made a truly one-of-a-kind album, and that’s even by their standards. I’ve mentioned before that I tend to like my jazz pretty rowdy and aggressive (like my metal), and the chaos that Mamaleek already generates with their brand of black metal is perfect to trim with and infuse with the angular dissonance of traditional jazz at its more energetically extreme. While the array of chaotic sounds may make Come and See their most intangibly black metal album, the ethos of that root genre pierces through by way of the harshly shrieked vocals just as much as the new jazz elements do. I really might just have to do a full-length review on this one because there is so much going on here that is worth admiring and I can’t stop loving it.
9/10
Phalanx - Golden Horde
This album came out a few months ago and has been making some pretty significant waves on Bandcamp, and for good reason. The relatively young band on their second release ever do showcase a pretty good knack for groove and death metal brutality, balancing slow, thick, tasty groove and blasting death metal without falling into metalcore breakdown clichés or death metal clichés. The three-pronged vocal attack the band touts isn’t quite as dazzling as they might think it is (with the abundance of talented vocalists capable of shapeshifting through a variety of metal vocal techniques), but I do think it would be cool to hear them use that approach with all three vocalists acting more simultaneously to more effectively convey the chaos of the war-related lyrical themes they focus on. Nevertheless, this quarter-hour taster is a great starter for them and definitely worth checking out. Hopefully it’s a foreshadowing of the blossoming of a bright new act for death metal.
7/10
Regarde Les Hommes Tomber - Ascension
I’ve been seeing a lot of praise being thrown this album’s way, and I honestly can’t disagree too much with that it is a pretty damn good album. It is very reminiscent of the Numenorean album Adore that I praised so highly last year. Like Adore, Ascension is an atmospheric black metal album that could easily hook your typical dude who hates Deafheaven and blackgaze and makes a really big deal about it. The band’does well on Ascension to avoid the reliance on generic post-rock guitar reverb ambiance that turns so many people off from blackgaze, working together a lot of unique sonic twists that don’t usually find their way into ambient black metal and channeling direct, cutting, yet humanly vibrant instrumentation that’s backed by raw cries of agony very similar to what Numenorean was doing last year. Perhaps this is the new way forward for atmospheric black metal and blackgaze. If so, Regarde Les Hommes Tomber are doing well to lead the way.
8/10
Deadspace - A Portrait of Sacrificial Scars
I already offered my praises to this album at length with my long-form post dedicated to it, but I’ll give it another shout for its brilliant, bittersweet sending off of the seemingly tireless Australian band. Deadspace give their oppressive/depressive sound the added magnitude and glory offered by choir and orchestral elements with more tact than most bands that use those elements regularly. I really am surprised that the band have decided to split up at such a high point in their artistry and I wish there could be more from them, but I have to respect their decision to end it here, and A Portrait of Sacrificial Scars is a great note to end on.
9/10
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jesterlady · 4 years
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Rise of Skywalker review
After Watching Episode IX for the second time, I feel like it’s finally time to make my feelings known regarding the sequel trilogy and to vent some of the negativity by getting it down in somewhat rational fashion.
If any one recalls the 6k I wrote on Avengers Endgame, you’ll know what to expect.
Now it’s been a while since I saw either Ep VII or VIII, so my memory is likely rusty on details.
 My feelings on this trilogy in general have been extremely negative.  It’s interesting, but after I saw Force Awakens, I actually had a very positive reaction at first.  It felt like a Star Wars movie (following the New Hope formula).  But after a while, even before Last Jedi came, I realized that I actually was disappointed, not necessarily in the movie as a movie or the new characters, but the direction the whole trilogy was likely to go.
 I must confess a great deal of this feeling probably arose from watching Clone Wars and Rebels in the meantime and becoming very caught up in those time periods and what they represent for Star Wars.  And that’s just it…the sequel trilogy takes what came before, what those people bled and died for, and basically said it didn’t matter.  They didn’t actually save the galaxy.  The victory at Endor has become incredibly cheapened by the First Order’s existence…and it doesn’t even matter that apparently it was Palpatine all along so it’s suddenly very connected in a haphazard fashion.
 They could have told a much more interesting story about the struggles of rebuilding a galaxy. They could have had the same characters, they could have had the same arcs (terrible ones mostly), and the galaxy could still be in danger.  But starting off with a brand new evil empire like destroying the old one didn’t even matter, not even letting Han and Leia stay together…like, that’s just creating drama for the sake of drama.  We have to destroy everything that was built before, because we’re really unoriginal and don’t know how to create new stories or build on top of a good foundation.
 Say what you like about the prequels (I am a fan in general) they had a very cohesive story, building toward a single point.  The sequels…did not.
 Now, we must all acknowledge the elephant in the room.  That of the atrocious planning and divided directional control that went into making these movies.  I don’t know what Disney was thinking!  The MCU for all its faults is a cohesive whole.  With a franchise infinitely more popular and lucrative and with a fraction less of the movies, you couldn’t pull off having a story that makes sense?
 And I’ll just say that even if JJ didn’t like what Rian did with TLJ, basically completely doing a 180 and trying to go the other direction, was selfish.  It destroyed further rather than fixed the problem.  I don’t have anything else to say, other than the lack of unity is probably the ultimate problem after the initial direction in the first place.  I didn’t really approve of TLJ.  The Rey/Ben parts…sure, but the slowest chase scene known to man and completely superfluous side ventures to a gambling planet were utter drivel.  So it’s not that I’m a Rian vs JJ person.  I think the lack of unity and that they both screwed with each other’s narratives is the problem.
 Anyway, we’re here to talk about TROS.  (And how about that, coming up with a title that is super confusing since we already have Revenge of the Sith.  I guess that’s ROTS…but come on!
 So…this will be fairly chronological but as I get deeper into character arcs and plot points, it will delve all over the place.
 The intro of a Star Wars movie is usually fairly jarring.  We’re dropped into the middle of a situation and all we know is three paragraphs long, to tell us what’s going on and what happened.  But this felt even more jarring than usual.
 Suddenly knowing Palps is alive in the credit titles is so off course.  Knowing he was alive at the end of TLJ would have been preferable, leaving us time to stew over how he was still alive and giving them time to come up with something more coherent than the absolute zero explanation we were given.  The return of an essential character/villain like that deserves way more gravitas and planning than the shock value we were presented with.  The idea of him being alive is not so shocking to those familiar with the EU, but that was explained and explained well, whereas how long he’s been planning this, Snoke, the ships, how…it’s all completely ignored and I guess we can come up with explanations on our own.  So…is Snoke his clone?  Or a part of him?  How many Snokes were there?  There are so many questions regarding their relationship…how it relates to Kylo/Ben, how it relates to Rey, how it relates to their bond, but I’ll get more into that later.  And more on those ships.
 Pretty sure a blow no one can be faulted with is Carrie’s death.  If she had been alive, I have to believe so many things would have been better.  She uttered the only sensible line in the movie…never underestimate a droid. Something everyone else went on to ignore even though droids made the whole movie possible.  Ugh.  I do think it’s funny that since TFA we’ve all been told to call her the General now…no more princess cause princesses are apparently weak, but she was suddenly a princess again this movie.
 The Jedi texts, I’d like to know more about that.  Very plot device-y really, if you think about it.  All this info about new and improved powers and places and things and considering how much lore we know as an audience who actually have been exposed to when the Jedi were still around, opposed to Luke onward…it’s just an excuse for story. Same thing with the Sith wayfinders and that dagger.  I guess you could make the argument for Palps having them made after ROTJ, but…that makes no sense.  But it’s the only thing that makes sense since how could anyone make a dagger the exact shape of a crashed Death Star before it crashed?  But the Jedi texts…super old texts…reference the wayfinders. And it was already in the vault of the crashed DS.  All I’m saying is that doesn’t make a lot of logical sense and someone needs to explain it to me.  And to stop making mysterious keys and clues to things.  It makes sense the Sith loyalist would have it since he needed to go back to Exegol to deliver Rey, (though he had clearly already left Jakku and killed her parents, so was he just going back to say, oops, I messed up? Palps clearly got the message somehow) but maybe it would have been better for them to keep all the Oracle stuff in and explained all this stuff properly.  Like I’m confused about Palpatine’s plan and he’s usually the master of strategy.
 Okay…Poe is so unlikable in this movie.  And he really doesn’t have an arc.  Maybe a little one, struggling with the burden of leadership.  But he mostly seems to be there to argue with people and be rude to Threepio.  This is a waste of a good character.  He was barely in TFA, he was a total mess in TLJ, and here he’s just a jerk.  I got nothing good to say for him.  Which is a shame because he could have been awesome.
 We will talk about Rose and her complete lack of presence.  Up front, I never cared for Rose in TLJ…didn’t see the point of her. She brought nothing to the story in my opinion and whether she was supposed to be a love interest for Finn or to symbolize hope or just be representative of WOC, I don’t know.  But her being shifted to the sidelines of this story is a blatant statement of disrespect.  The actress has been very publicly discriminated against online and instead of taking care of her, the director and studio pretty much stated they agreed with that by what they did with her character.  Aside from that…makes zero sense for someone who was so built up and had such a big part in TLJ to be so downplayed and have her story just stop in the middle.  It’s bad storytelling.  Especially while you’re bringing in a troop of new female characters to do…what? Basically things Rose could have accomplished and would have made more sense doing.  
 Along the lines of pointless things…what is the point of the Knights of Ren?  They were so built up…such an ooh, scary prospect and they play zero role in this.  They have no point.  They have no purpose.  We know nothing about them unless we hunt for backstory in comics and things like that. But you shouldn’t have to do that to understand the point of someone in a movie.  I’d also just like to point out, if they’re really Force sensitives who were Jedis in training…maybe?  Then they should be a lot harder to defeat and why don’t they have light sabers? And…why are they the Knights of Ren if there isn’t at least a discussion about what their leader is doing when he comes to Exegol.  Like they’re just trying to kill him from the second he enters.  I’d be like…hi, boss, so why aren’t we killing the girl…or something like that.  And if they’re the Knights of Ren, his…family for lack of a better term, people who trained with him since boys, I’d like to think he at least would have some compunction of striking them down…would try to reason with them first.  They might still be brainwashed like he was, but he would know that better than anyone.  I don’t know if that makes sense, but that’s my knee jerk reaction. A waste of possibilities.
 Want to talk about another waste?  Hux! Never liked him and his Hitler youth attitude, but really he was not important in this trilogy, like at all. DG is too good an actor to not have his talents used better.  He, Phasma, and Kylo were built up as this villain trilogy to stand against the Rey, Poe, Finn good guy trilogy, and basically none of them got any kind of development other than Kylo.  I knew Hux was the spy and I believe it is funny that he is the spy solely because he hates Kylo so much, but other than that…he was a waste of space.   Better to have him finally rise and become the commander he’d always wanted to be instead of Pryde suddenly being there and being all evil and competent for some reason.  Having him be significant for having followed Palpatine before would only actually be significant if we had seen him serve Palpatine before.  It’s just another instance of this brand new character suddenly taking the place of an established one for no reason.
 We can talk about Finn now.  Finn, who also suffered from lack of actual character arc and purpose in the movie other than running after everyone and being worried about them.  The whole Force sensitive thing is old news…we all knew about it a long time ago.  And this way of revealing it…such poor methods!  As far as I know the only reason you’d start thrashing around and declaring you never told someone something is because it is going to be a declaration of love or like a super big confession of guilt.  I mean, that’s what they wanted us to think by keeping it in suspense for so much of the movie and it’s just…not that big of a deal. Like it’s not a surprise, it’s not a death confession topic.  It was just stupid.  
 As for the idea that he only left the First Order because of the Force, well, that just implies that only Force sensitive people know right from wrong and can make moral decisions…it’s just not a good message.  Now whether Jannah’s whole platoon is Force sensitive is not clear, but it’s strongly implied.  And the fact that it’s what he wants to have told Rey is also not clear.  Like you have to figure that out (possibly with online help), it’s not inherent in the narrative.  Also…could have been told to Rose, Jannah not needed.  In fact, this whole storyline would have actually made much more sense and been better if it’s something Finn had been dealing with in TLJ and perhaps came with an army of defectors or been out convincing people this whole time.  Potential storyline wasted.  Plus…for someone who’s an ex Stormtrooper, watching Finn run down hallways and strike down troopers is pretty insensitive and OOC if you ask me.  Just a super bad way to take the character.  And he really didn’t do that much else other than be the main person who does the thing that destroys the thing so everyone else can do the main thing they’re there to do.
 Wow, and can we talk about Threepio’s treatment in general and in this trilogy in particular? I will be the first to admit that Han and Leia especially weren’t all that great to him all the time.  But it was how they would have treated anyone, I think.  Poe particularly just laid into him all the time for no reason, even after he sacrificed himself for them.  Like…just really made me mad at Poe and really mad at everyone the whole movie. It appears that Threepio, one of the two original droids of the whole franchise, gets the least respect out of any of them.  With all the fanservice going on, you’d think he’d be treated better.  I love the HISHE part where he talks about taking a last look at his friends and it certainly ain’t none of this trio!  You want to talk about underestimating a droid!  I know he’s not everybody’s favorite and I’m probably biased, but if we’re ranking droids in the SW universe, which we all do, Threepio’s not at the top for me either.  That spot belongs to Chopper.  But I’m still going to accord Threepio the respect and dignity he deserves for seniority if nothing else.  Because he tries so hard and no one ever thanks him for it.  I like BB8 and all, but he goes under Threepio and R2 both in ranking!  And let’s not forget if not for a droid’s knowledge of Exegeol (so convenient) and the way to get there, you resistance jerks are all toast, so respect!
 Zorii, Zorii, Zorii, frankly another superfluous new character.  But I liked her best out of all of them.  I can see that little something something with her and Poe and I think it would be cool for it to flourish now that the war’s over and they can put the really convenient past and betrayal behind them.  Poe being a spice runner isn’t bad but isn’t good either. It’s just convenient, because they suddenly needed black market stuff.  Also…like how’d she survive?  Really. Because it’s such a big deal for her to have gotten that thingamajig and it’s not like people have warning when the bad guys blow up your planet.  There is no evacuation time.
 I’ve mentioned her a bit so Jannah, again, other than it’s cool there are more women in the galaxy, just took up screen time for other characters to develop.  Were they trying to insinuate she could be Lando’s daughter, because that makes zero sense!  And why all of a sudden he’s champion of finding the lost families of the galaxy is super weird.  Also, it was cool to see him flying the Falcon and all, but did he really add anything other than gravitas from the original trilogy?  I’m usually a huge fan of fanservice, but I didn’t really feel like a fan being serviced.  I felt like someone constantly having nice things thrown at me so I won’t notice the murder being done in the other room.  A nice shot of Wedge, too.
 So many extra resistance people always there.  Like I love Dom, but why was he there?
 But talking of other people really who the heck is Maz?  I mean she just shows up out of nowhere and knows everything about the Force and the Jedi and people’s pasts and what their decisions are and we don’t have a clue why.  Like who is she?  How does she know these things?  Where does she even come from?  Like why does she talk about Leia trying to reach Ben and why does she smile when Leia dies, what does she know that we don’t and why?
 I guess now for the really hard stuff.  Rey and Ben.
 They were the only ones who really got developed and even then, I think Ben got robbed out of his ending.
 So Rey’s heritage. Being a Palpatine, very disappointing. If there’s one good thing I liked about TLJ it was the idea that you didn’t have to be part of some great bloodline to be special in the Force.  The Force doesn’t care who your parents are.  Most of the great Force users we know have literally nothing to do with who their parents are.  If anything, it has more to do with their lineage of training.  So JJ basically saying screw that idea and forcing Rey into that was very disappointing. And apparently electricity is very genetic…Dooku aside, of course!  It also implies the Dark side in her is because of the Palpatine heritage.  But the Dark Side of the Force exists for a reason, for balance, and provides something important to the galaxy.  It’s already proven even the Lightest of users and bloodlines have that pull.  
 Rey has been alone and searching for family this whole time.  Having someone to belong to was important to her.  But…the message of her finding a family and joining one, I think is a lot more important than her finding out her past and heritage.  Just being Rey at the end instead of having to say she was Rey Skywalker or Rey Solo would have made more sense!  Of course…I also think Solo makes more sense for her anyway given her connection with Han, her training with Leia, and her bond with Ben. She did train under Luke as well, granted, but she had more Solo connection than Skywalker.  They just wanted the cool name.  But also doesn’t make sense since Palps calls Ben the last Skywalker in the movie as well.  But whatever, I don’t really care.
 Let’s talk about this whole dyad in the Force thing and the grand plan.  Because I can’t logically reason it out myself.
 So Palps apparently has a plan to bring Rey to him as a girl so he can have her kill him and his spirit can go into her body and he can reign through her because his old body is like super fried and the clone thing ain’t working so hot.  Doesn’t happen, but he’s also working on his other plans to corrupt Ben and bring him to the Dark side, under the influence of Snoke, to do what?  Like what is his plan there apart from just general evil and revenge and nasty stuff? But all along there’s apparently been this Dark prophecy against Ben (and we all know Palps is the manipulator of the Dark).  Luke said Leia gave up her Jedi training because she sensed that at the end of that journey was her son’s death.  You’d think then they’d honor that sacrifice by not killing him, but whatever.
 Palps created or controlled or was at the back of Snoke (however he was at the back of Snoke) and so he’s pulling the strings during TLJ.  He knows everything Snoke knows.  So if Snoke created the bond between Rey and Ben, then he’d be very aware of that.  So how does the whole dyad thing work?  Because it’s made very clear Palps doesn’t know about the dyad, otherwise he likely wouldn’t have tried to do the dark ritual/strike me down plan first when it would have been so much easier to get them both together to drain them.
 So…have they always been a dyad from birth?  Was the dyad created separate from the bond when Snoke created the bond?  A Light balance to the Dark bond?  Regardless of how, clearly they are one soul and connected more powerfully than anyone else in generations.
 But Palps and his plan…he tells Ben to kill Rey.  What was he actually trying to do since it’s clear he didn’t want Rey dead?
 My only thought is that he thought Rey would actually kill Ben and thus give in to her Dark side and be more ready to be Empress…
 But Leia’s sacrifice and all of that still confuses me.  Palps said that Leia interfered with his plans.  
 Now in that fight Rey was the instigator, was the one trying to wreak damage (freaked out by her vision and revelations, I’m sure) and Ben was the one winning that fight. Like he was going to win until Leia stopped him.  But was he going to kill her?  Because I think it’s pretty clear that Ben has never wanted to kill Rey even if he was trying at first before the bond really started.  Either way, Leia stops him from doing something and Rey stabs him instead. Then Leia dies and snaps Rey out of it. Was it the reaching out to Ben or the death that Palps was talking about interfering with his plans?  Because again…he didn’t want Rey dead at that point.
 I don’t know. Having a fleet full of ships hidden for how long, when did those weapons go into place, who’s manning the ships? Because apparently there’s the regular First Order fleet still out there conveniently being taken down by the rest of the galaxy after this fleet burns, so have these recruits just been sitting out there, chilling at Exegol for years, waiting for this order and attack? Total side tangent and question really, but it all makes no sense.
 Leia’s death…so much speculation on why her body didn’t vanish until Ben died.  There has to be something significant there and I’d really love to know if it’s a future plan or if it was part of the original end of the movie since clearly it was changed.  Maz smiles, remember.  Also…is she somehow giving her life for Ben’s to bring him back?  She’s clearly a Force Ghost at the end of the movie.
 Okay…so Han memory.  I did like that and I did like that Ben could get absolution from his dad and have that be the final thing that turns him from Kylo to Ben.  I wasn’t sure I could forgive Ben ever after TFA.  I cried so much and I was so mad.  That’s Han Solo, y’all.  HAN FRIKKING SOLO.  I mean how do you even kill Han Solo?
 Granted, I think we were all robbed of a story where Han and Leia are a united front raising their kid and trying to protect him from danger, but that’s just me.  I mean we could have had The Mummy 2 in space, guys. ROBBED!  Someone write that AU, please.
 And can we just talk about Adam Driver’s acting for a moment?  I mean, the boy is phenomenal.  He goes from being one person to being a completely different one effortlessly.  From the moment he throws the light saber in the sea, his mannerisms and physicality is so different.  It’s amazing. Kudos to him.  Absolutely.  Oscar worthy! He does it without having any lines whatsoever apart from ‘ow.’  And I like Ben Solo and I’m sad we didn’t get to see more of him.  He’s so Han’s boy, so Han’s boy.  Love that!  He’s an awesome character in his good boy sweater.  (Love the sweater and while we’re on the subject, could him and Chris Evans have a sweater off with the good boy sweater and the white knit sweater please?)
 Hey, Luke got to raise a X Wing finally.  That’s the kind of fan service I’m talking about.
 One of my favorite parts of the movie actually was the whole Jedi from the past bit.  Mostly because I saw my boy Kanan getting his recognition and rightful spot as one of the great Jedi, up there with Obi Wan and Anakin and Ahsoka!  I also loved Ahsoka being there and the other Clone Wars greats.  Really cool.  I do kind of wish they had included Ezra, too, but that’s just me loving on my Space Blueberry!  And wishing James Arnold Taylor who put so much into Obi Wan could have at least done Plo Koon since Ewan took his place as Obi Wan.  Either way, that was the only homage and respect paid to the other two trilogies and the Star Wars legend in general.  The only acknowledgement of how much sacrifice and history went into this franchise before now.
 Now…can Rey kill Palps now and not have his spirit go into her because he’d already made himself revitalized with their dyad energy or was it because no ritual had been done?  Just wondering.  Or was it a loophole since all she did was defend herself and his own lightning killed him?
 There’s a lot about energy and healing and the Force in this and so you can speculate all over the place about what the rules are.  (You’d think in the Clone Wars healing each other would have been a thing!) And since we’ve never deal with a dyad before, we don’t know how it works.  But it really kind of feels like even with how drained both of them were after Palps took their bond…it either should have been returned to them when he died or their combined energy should have been able to keep both of them alive. Or something.  Two in one means connection and honestly, I feel like both of them should have died or both of them should have lived.
 I know a lot of people think it was the perfect end for Ben because he redeemed himself (like Anakin) and there would have been no place for him in the galaxy after all the evil Kylo had done.  (Much less if you read the comics!)  But I’m a sucker for a redemption story and I think the hardest punishment always is to face your past and work through what you’ve done instead of taking the easy way out of death (not having to actually atone).  I think it’s a beautiful potential for forgiveness and grace and realizing none of us can really save ourselves.
 And whatever you think of Kylo/Ben or his ending, it’s clear something was changed at the last minute.  There’s a whole lot of editing done on that last scene when he revives her and they kiss and on Tattoine.  There are apparently screen tests people swear they saw where he didn’t die.  I won’t go into the scene analysis some Reylos have, but jaw moving and talking on Rey shots that were cut, it looking more natural for her to have been pulling him back up rather than him falling down, it looks like his hand is the one in the burying lightsaber scene…  He was obviously supposed to live at some point and why they changed their minds, I don’t know.  He is one of the most popular characters and they lost a cash cow when they killed him off.  Silly idiots.
 As far as Rey goes, I also think that’s terribly unfair, to give her the connection she’s been yearning for her whole life and instead of giving her a future, you stick her back on a sand infested planet, sliding down in a parallel to TFA, and burying the past sabers, and being alone.  I know she’s still got friends and stuff but I think she won’t know her new place in all of this and she’s going to feel very lonely.  
 Also, where did the yellow saber come from?  Did she cleanse Ben’s saber?  Did she find a new kyber crystal of her own?  Come on now…don’t be mysterious and weird.  Normally I can take mysteries being unsolved if great care is taken to resolve relationships and characters and this trilogy and story did neither, so no love from me.
 As for shipping them.  I didn’t really through the first two movies.  I was curious to see what would happen, but I could have gone either way. I did ship them after this one.  I do love two broken people finding solace in each other.  And I think there is such potential there for these characters and as a relationship that could have been done so much better and wasn’t and that’s what is the saddest thing of all.
 I really have an urge to write an AU…Luke Skywalkers’ Academy for Sensitive Younglings (title patent pending) and rewrite the whole stupid thing.  I fear I have neither the time nor inspiration for that. But I would dearly love to see awkward teenage versions of these characters growing up and learning and being stupid and given a chance to become the best versions of themselves. My vision of the future.
 Probably in another 30 years there will be a fully formed, all ready to go evil Empire that no one has done anything to stop anyway…
 So there we go. I probably have more to say but that’s all I got and that’s with taking notes!
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ao3feed--kylux · 4 years
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you should see me in a crown
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2SAAXEW
by AdamJensens
They say a fish rots from the head down, and it’s up to Hux to prevent chaos in the ranks of First Order after Kylo Ren becomes Supreme Leader.
[post TLJ; canon divergent; no beta, we die like the early draft for Ep IX]
Words: 1753, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English
Fandoms: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Categories: M/M
Characters: Armitage Hux, Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Additional Tags: Kylux Positivity Week, Pre-Relationship, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post TLJ, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, Not Beta Read
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2SAAXEW
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greyjedireylo · 5 years
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tbh if anyone is gonna die in ep ix, i'm willing to bet it's x-wing pilot #669, who after being seeing for about 3 seconds blows. RIP, we hardly knew ya, but i'm sure you're back story will be randomly written some years from now for a non-canon novel or comic and have exactly 63 fics, most of them by the same author, expanding on their life and also about a scandalous affair they had with some higher up? Perhaps Poe? Who knows. (PS I can't believe how hard I just dragged myself.)
lmao part of the FUN of SW is making up elaborate backstories for minor characters.
honestly I don’t think any main characters are going to die in IX (villainous FO characters obviously will, and maybe some new minor characters). but the last movie in a trilogy isn’t typically the dark one (ROTS is the exception obviously since it was a prequel and telling the tragic portion of Anakin’s story). but SW is good at creating high stakes without actually killing main characters.
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apawcalypsemeow · 5 years
Note
36, 37, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 48, Star Wars Asks!
36. If you could be trained by Qui-Gon Jinn or Obi-Wan, who would you choose?
ooooOOOOO! Qui-Gon hands down. I love Obi-Wan so much, but he was definitely a flawed teacher and embodies some of the problems with the old Jedi Order. Qui-Gon has much more of the grey Jedi vibes I dig. He also focuses more on the Force from a spiritual aspect rather than the weird pseudo-military they later become. Maybe we could go be Force hippies together, that would be nice. I really hope we get more insight into his character, beliefs, and relation with the Force in the upcoming Master and Apprentice novel.  
37. Pick a saber color.
Yellow/gold! Back when I played KotOR this was the color assigned to the Jedi Sentinels, the class that balanced spiritual knowledge of the Force with combat/field skills. I always really latched on to that. So much so that I have my own yellow lightsaber and my personal self-insert OC wields a short yellow lightsaber and off-hand shield generator. 
41. What is the best The Last Jedi scene?
Argh there are so many! The hand touch! Kylo killing Snoke! The Praetorian fight scene! Luke and Yoda! Luke and Leia reunion! The Holdo Maneuver! The shirtless scene!
But I have to say Luke passing into the Force. I have a whole meta in the works (if I ever finish it) about how much I love what Luke does at the end of TLJ and how it is the most perfect embodiment of Jedi philosophy that we have seen. It just moves me in ways I can’t describe. 
42. If you could have any creature as a pet, what would you choose?
Varactyl, that weird lizard-bird-horse thing that Obi-Wan rides in ROTS. Or a porg. Porgs are always good. 
43. Who is your favorite non-main character?
Mon Mothma. She manages this perfect balance of knowledgeable, commanding, and compassionate. The perfect leader for a rebellion and new republic.  
44. Yousa like Jar Jar? (ok so I realized you didn’t ask this one and I just copy-pasted wrong, but I already typed out the answer so I’m just leaving it lol)
Meesa LOVE Jar Jar Binks! 
Seriously. 
It has been a journey. 
I already mentioned I was 10 when TPM came out. The perfect age for his wacky slapstick brand of humor. And he was my favorite character. 
Then of course I went through my angsty teenage phase where kids stuff is gross and dumb and hating on the prequels is cool (TM). 
Then in my early 20s I started liking him again in this kind of pseudo-ironic way?
 And now I am not at all ashamed to say I love him again. I think what really decided it for me is the way the other characters react to him. They show him the same level of exasperation for his antics that we feel. They are the perfect audience stand in! Kids like him cause he’s silly and adults get to relate to everyone around him being annoyed and being dumbfounded when his clumsiness somehow pays off. 
45. Corellia or Tatooine?
Tatooine. I love the cantina. Best music. 
46. Finn or Poe?
Finn. I love them both and love their bro (or maybe more *eyebrow waggle*) relationship, but Finn is just such a good guy and all around cool character. I really hope they play up his former stormtrooper status more in ep ix. I would like to see his emotional journey now that he has chosen his side and is actively fighting people he knows were kidnapped and brainwashed. Hoping like mad for a stormtrooper rebellion and reconciliation!      
48. What are your top five ships?
B-wing, x-wing... I kid XD
Reylo, Kalluzeb, Finnrose, Stormpilot, Obitine
(tbh pretty much any combination of sequel trilogy characters could fall on that list lol)
Thanks so much for the asks!!!!
Send a Star Wars ask?
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Snoke & Mirrors
Back again with a third meta/speculation this time about this tall pale raisin.
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I know what some are probable going to think. 
*SPOILERS FOR THE LAST JEDI & LOTS OF SPECULATION FOR EP IX*
But he’s dead! Why do a meta about this guy now?
Well I think there’s more to this guy then what we’ve seen and the Sequel Trilogy has been trying to clue us in on that. Maybe too much so when it came to the Force Awakens. There was/is a lot of backlash from the killing off this character before we got answers leaving many to go, huh? Others have taken to the idea that we don’t need any answers cause, hey, Kylo Ren/General Hux are the big bads now so who needs Snoke. I believe Lucasfilm would like the audience to be lulled into this idea cause coming in Episode IX when those answers are revealed they will have more of a ‘punch.’ Problem with the backlash now is I think many were expecting this reveal in The Last Jedi and that expectation is bit of The Empire Strikes Back fault.
In ESB, we got the huge reveal that Darth Vader was Luke’s father. (Sorry if I spoiled that, but seriously who hasn’t seen that movie and is currently reading this) This left the audience reeling and they didn’t get a resolution to this until The Return of The Jedi. Thing was there was nothing on that same or greater emotional impact like that scene with Luke and Vader at Cloud City in RTJ. Don’t get me wrong. I loved RTJ, but just doesn’t have the same weight as ESB and I think it suffers a little from that. The last movie of the Original Trilogy is mostly resolution so the beginning part feels a lot of waiting around until we get the pieces into play to get to that resolution. I’m talking about the Jabba’s palace and rescuing Han. I think Lucasfilm realized this issue and is saving the big reveals for Episode IX so they finish the Skywalker saga with a BANG! Gotta have that weight for the last movie.
So who is Snoke? Well I don’t think we’ll get a final answer until the next movie, but here’s what we do know. Star Wars Sith/Dark force users have on-the-nose kind of names. You have the title of Darth (which George Lucas has said to mean Dark), there is Darth Plagueis (Dark Plague), Darth Maul ( Dark To Wound by Tearing/Scratching...to maul), Darth Tyranus (Dark Tyrant), Darth Sidious (….I mean come on!) and then even Darth Vader (Dark Father, The Dutch word for father is Vader). So back to Snoke….what’s the first thing his name reminds you of....SMOKE.
When we see him in The Force Awakens we see this ghostly hologram form.
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Now this is striking to me cause it reminds me of an old illusion to create ghost effects.
So in the 1700′s there was an illusion trick were it would look like an entity floating in midair using a hidden projector, a mirror to bounce the image off and smoke to cast the reflected image on.
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These is example I found. There is also an effect called Pepper’s Ghost Technique which is what the Snoke scene above reminded me of. This technique is similar except it uses glass to cast the reflected projection on.
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They use this effect in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion
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(Here’s a video describing the Pepper’s Ghost Technique in detail https://youtu.be/TcqyoYfHIFM)
So what’s the meaning of all this. Well the term “smoke and mirrors” which meant an obvious illusion came from this very trick. Snoke is just smoke. That isn’t his true form, but an illusion. This isn’t the only clue that what we see of Snoke is not his true self. Recently Rian Johnson responded to this on his Twitter. 
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Link to original post. Source for images are from @mydeardetective
I’m adding this cause come on!
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(Big ol’ evil Oz floating head)
Which begs the question...Who’s behind the curtain? 
Now one thing I think is not the case. I don’t think it was a force projection in the throne room of TLJ. Reason why I don’t think this is the case is cause one we see the body afterwards and two we actually see him physically cut in two. We see the effect the lightsaber had on his form. With Luke Skywalker we see Kylo Ren stick his saber into his chest and see it had no effect. I know my husband likes this theory, but I don’t cause I feel it undermines the sacrifice and weight of what Luke achieved by this feat. No, I think this Dark Side user had something else up his sleeve.
Here’s what else we know about Snoke. We know he’s not a Sith, but is of the Dark side of the Force. Andy Serkis said himself in an interview that "He’s definitely not a Sith, but he’s certainly at the darker end of the Force. Without giving too much away, that begins to unfold a little in this one. (referring to The Last Jedi Movie)” This seems to me that there is more we are going to find out about Snoke later on. Now mind you this interview was right BEFORE The Last Jedi came out so he could be just trying to not give away what would happen in the film. But I don’t think so... 
We know Snoke views compassion and attachments as weakness as stated in the Force Awakens Novelization. He considers Darth Vader’s sentimentality towards his own son was his failure and weakness that Snoke believed not only brought Vader down, but the whole Empire. We know he’s from the unknown region and that he is both a new character to the audience (at least Lucasfilm keeps saying that) and is very old. Hence he watched the rise and fall of the Empire. He’s also very into collecting dark side artifacts. Like the ring with the stone from Vader’s Castle with the glyphs from the Four Sages of Dwartii enscribed on it. The four Dwartii were seen in statue form in Palpatine’s room in Revenge of The Sith.
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This is interesting cause Mustafar is a locus (focal point) for the Dark Side of the Force. So a rock from Vader’s castle (which by the way Vader went to in order to help him bled his kyber crystal) must have some dark side significance. We really don’t know much about the these sages of Dwartii other than they were a group of contentious philosophers and lawgivers from the early days of the Galactic Republic, who had great influence on its early constitution. Emperor Palpatine was fond of the Sistros staute which he had in his office and later moved it to the Imperial Palace, (the former Jedi Order’s temple). But so far they’ve only been associated with Palpatine and Snoke, so we really don’t know who the Four Sages of Dwartii truly are yet. 
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My husband really likes the idea that he’s Darth Plagueis, a sith lord brought up by Palpatine in ROTS. 
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The Sith legend says that Darth Plagueis The Wise was once so powerful that he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create life and could even save others from dying. He became so powerful all he worried about was losing his power and then, in his sleep, was killed by his apprentice Darth Sidious. Now I don’t think Snoke is Plagueis... well maybe he is but this idea has been shot down by Lucasfilm several times. So I’m not sure. There is also the fact that Snoke does not consider himself a Sith. I think he may have taught Plagueis this ‘power’, or Plagueis was just one of Snoke’s many shells he used. You see, I think the reason we’ll see more of Snoke in Episode IX is cause we’ll see his dark force ghost or at least the dark side version of force spirits.
Let me explain force ghosts a bit. The force ghosts we’ve seen so far have been Obi Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Anakin (at the end of ROTJ), and Qui-Gon Jinn (Clone Wars show). The knowledge to become one so far have only been those on the Light Side. This ability was first partially taught to Qui-Gon though he never completed his training so he could only manifest his voice. He showed Yoda where he could learn this from. The Five priestesses of the Wellspring of Life taught Yoda how to manifest himself after death. Yoda after mastering this ability then past it on to Obi Wan. We don’t really know how Anakin learns this ability except maybe post-mortem? (If it was explained somewhere I would love to see the source!) Force spirits are beings that have become one with the Force and are now part of it and its will. So when Obi Wan had said to Vader, “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” This is what he meant. So we haven’t seen dark side force spirits. Not really. We did get to see a bit an illusion of them on Moraband, aka Korriban, when Yoda went there to complete his training to learn this ability at the homeworld of the Sith. There were several “specters” that try to stop Yoda when he arrives, claiming there is nothing after death. These I believe are just part of his test and to explain why the Sith focused on power so much.
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They thought after ones death there was nothing hence they focus on trying to obtain as much power as they could and keep it as long as possible. George Lucas has stated that the light side was selflessness and the dark was selfishness. The Dark wants to control and keep that control. Their interest in staying alive or preserving oneself would logically be on their agenda. Heck Palpatine was always dabbling in that and trying to find a way to maintain his rule to be forever lasting.
So Dark side force ‘ghosts’ could be something else. A perversion of the Force. Bending it and stealing it from others in order to retain for oneself. They may need to be tied to a physical place like the illusion of Darth Bane and his tomb. Or The Presence, the voice inside the Sith Holocron in Star Wars Rebels. Perhaps just to obtain this dark side ability requires extreme measures. I could have swore I read some where that Snoke was twisted and deformed, used very dark side abilities to maintain/heal himself. (I can’t find where this is from so if anyone remembers could you please send me a link so I could source it?) 
We also got this concept art teased in The Art of The Last Jedi book.
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(Thank you @inwildspace for this!)
From The Art of The Last Jedi:
“We’ve seen dead Jedi come back as blue ghosts. Maybe Sith can come back. And maybe there’s some all powerful Sith that’s controlling whatever the dark side is. We did talk a lot about how the final battle frontier for Jedi might be in the spirit realm. So you have to have a bad-guy ghost.” - Alzmann 
That sure does look like Snoke….doesn’t it?
The other thing is I think neither of these two are the “big bad.”
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This is cause they just don’t ramp the stakes up enough for me. I’ve said before I’m pretty sure we are getting a Bendemption (redemption of Ben Solo) in some form. You don’t leave the big villain at the end of Act 2 looking regretful and kneeling on the floor looking like he’s about to cry, staring down at his father’s fading dice. You also honestly don’t have Leia say “I know my son is truly gone.” and then have Luke say to her “No one’s ever really gone.” I can go into more depth of how Lucasfilm has been repeatedly hinting at Kylo Ren getting redeemed, but that’s a meta/speculation post for another time. (This is already ridiculously long). He’s also doesn’t seem care about the First Order’s cause and is really after is own agenda. 
Then there’s Hux. I love his scheming and gloating little smug mug and goodness it would be fun to see him go full emperor, however it has been stated that he doesn’t have any use for Force abilities or powers. He’s more reliant on technological power. Hence in TLJ novelization he wants to make a second Starkiller and rely on massive fleet capabilities. And I’m pretty sure everyone is tired of is another Death Star as the thing to blow up. No more Death Stars/Starkillers. It’s been done. Please Lucasfilm, not another one.
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So what could ramp up the stakes even more in the next film? Well I think it’s going to be Force related and something that could effect the whole galaxy. Think Darth Nihilus level of power. Consuming life through the force to gain power. 
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We’ve seen this ability hinted at a bit in canon in Clone Wars with Mother Talzin using an orb to absorb the life force of living beings in the episodes The Disappeared, part 1 & 2. Just on a waaaaaaay bigger scale. 
Sooooooo yeah...that’s my crazy speculation for Ep IX regarding Snoke. Sorry for the length, but I like to explain where I’m coming from with these. Remember this is all speculation and I’m most likely wrong on this, but woah what a rabbit whole I went down!
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reylorabbittrail · 5 years
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I just realized the potential for an amazing parallel for Ep IX
Okay, so I was listening to @skytalkerspodcast a-ma-zing recent episode on monsters in Star Wars and something struck me as they talked about the callback to Frankenstein's monster in ROTS.
Darth Vader is something like undead. Whatever Palps does, it's asserting his Will to force Anakin to continue living as his alter ego. There is something monstrous in it. It's a classic idea of evil being fighting the natural order of things and asserting the will even against death. The Dark clings so hard to mortal life, they lose immortal life. (Witness, no Dark Side Force ghosts. They can haunt specific places but have no freedom or retention of self post-death.)
Ben accepting death and submitting to the Will of the Force would be a huge Light Side mirror image of Anakin/Vader's Frankenstein moment, especially if we get a pieta tableau with Rey equally sorrowful but accepting. If regeneration/resurrection is essentially a gift of the Force or an outflowing of love from Rey rather than an assertion of will, it continues the paradox of those who would save their life would lose it, but those willing to give their life gain it back.
So, one more reason why Force Healing makes sense in Ep IX. Not just for the fairy tale parallels, but because it brings closure to Anakin's story.
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unexpectedreylo · 5 years
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Michael Corleone, Redemption, and Ep IX
The other night I watched the last half hour so of a show called “The Godfather Legacy” on a channel called Reelz (it’s basically E! meets Investigation Discovery).  It had interviews not only with Francis Ford Coppola but also with several members of the cast and various academics/movie historians/mythologists including Camille Paglia and that guy from the Joseph Campbell Foundation who’s always on “Ancient Aliens.”  
They get around to discussing The Godfather III and how Michael Corleone tries to find redemption but ultimately fails.  As far as Coppola was concerned, Michael’s destiny was sealed when he orders the hit on his brother Fredo.  He tries to change: he wants the business to become “legit,” he attempts to buy forgiveness from God by giving his wealth to the Church, he patches things up with Kay and his children.  But none of it works.  As he famously says, “Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in!”  He can’t leave that mafia life behind.  Michael is nearly killed in an attack and shortly thereafter suffers from a diabetic stroke.  His attempt to rebuild his family ends in tragedy when a bullet meant for him kills his daughter Mary.  
Godfather II and III end with Michael alone and brooding, the difference being in III, he suddenly keels over and dies.  The show explained that there is a Sicilian expression, to “die like a dog,” meaning an undignified, shameful, lonely death like that of a dog going off on its own to die.  In case you missed the point, there just happens to be a lone dog right next to Michael as he collapses from his chair.  The show said that in trying to build his crime empire, he destroys his actual family and is therefore cursed to this kind of death.  
In many ways, Star Wars is George Lucas’s version of his former mentor’s Godfather flicks.  There’s a reason why they call The Godfather series the “Italian Star Wars.”  Coppola had the Corleone clan, Lucas had the Skywalkers.  Both are multigenerational family dramas and the characters’ actions have consequences for decades beyond.  If you don’t believe there are parallels, the Order 66 scene in ROTS is an obvious homage to the infamous baptism whack-a-thon in the first Godfather film (repeated again in the third).  Fans have even made videos cutting the two scenes together.  So naturally, while I’m watching this Reelz show I’m thinking of Star Wars and wondering what it all means for IX.
Now I would argue that Michael Corleone’s counterpart in Star Wars is Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker, not Kylo Ren.  But some of his story echoes in the sequel trilogy.  What Luke planned to do in TLJ before Rey comes along was to “die like a dog” for his own shame and failure, but instead he dies in peace and “with purpose.”  And the horrible sin hanging over Kylo’s head is killing his father, similar to Michael’s “sin” of killing his brother Fredo.  In TLJ, it’s revealed how deeply this crime has affected Kylo just as Michael is forever haunted by Fredo’s murder:  “I killed my mother’s son!”  Yes, fans argue that Fredo was at best a big dummy or at worst a traitor who was a problem, but like I said, this is where in Coppola’s mind Michael went too far and damned himself and by extension his family.  I suspect it’s because Michael publicly, practically over his mother’s grave, pretends to forgive Fredo then has him murdered anyway.
Good thing thing Coppola isn’t making IX, right?  You have to keep a couple of things in mind.  First of all, Coppola crafted the Godfather films as a kind of Shakespearean tragedy.  Star Wars is not a tragedy though it has elements of tragedy in the films.  Second, Michael’s attempts at redemption were kind of ham-fisted.  You can’t buy your soul back and you can’t have one toe in the mob world with the other toe out.  An essay about Michael and redemption on a Catholic site made the point that Michael’s tragedy was he sought legitimacy and respectability for his business and his father’s legacy instead dying “completely to the power and importance of his old life.”  
Redemption is of course very important in Star Wars.  In fact it’s covered in this 2016 essay.  What Darth Vader did in the OT was an act of refusal, literally dying to his old life so that his son would live.  I suspect Kylo/Ben will have to do the same thing but this does not mean he has to actually die.  He merely has to unequivocally reject what Kylo Ren is and everything that life brought him.  
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