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dalekofchaos · 4 years

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The complete lack of Anakin Skywalker in the Sequel Trilogy is an insult to the story of Star Wars, Anakin’s story and in the end they destroyed Anakin’s fall and redemption

The fact that Anakin is never mentioned by name, let alone shows up as a force ghost. Just shows how much Disney, JJ Abrams, Rian Johnson and Kathleen Kennedy were so afraid of the Prequels and couldn’t even bother to have the man who is the main focus of Star Wars to be featured in the sequel trilogy period. The Star Wars Saga was about Anakin and his family. I will forever be bitter and disgusted that Disney went out of their way to erase his presence.

Disney did everything to show what Anakin trained for, struggled for, went to the dark side for and sacrificed everything for was pointless. They introduced force healing, force resurrection, Rey taking the prophecy for herself, his family was tormented by Palpatine until his bloodline became extinct and now we know people can communicate with Tusken raiders. If all of this existed in the prequels, Anakin would’ve never even become Darth Vader. They made Anakin’s entire fall and redemption completely pointless.

I don’t know what it is with Disney, but apparently they get off with backhandedly disrespecting Anakin at every opportunity they get.

I do love Rey, but I agree with this YouTube comment I found a year ago “Rey single handedly destroyed Anakin's entire legacy, and made his whole life a joke. - you don't need to train to be stupidly powerful with the lightsaber or the force. Training isn't necessary anymore, as Rey proves in TFA and TLJ, and in some ways in TROS since I doubt Leia taught her force heal, force skype or force lightning. Thus, Anakin's tough decision to leave his mother in slavery while training to be a Jedi powerful enough to one day save her is made pointless. - you don't need to be in control of your powers. Hell, fits of unexplained anger are encouraged and other characters love you for it. Rey can be rude, destructive and irrational all she wants, and everyone supports her, while Anakin was always taught to obey orders and not think for himself, furthering his feeling of being enslaved and controlled. But nah, he was just wrong I guess. - the path to the dark side is no longer the easy and fast one. Everyone can just decide freely, flip flop between allegiances and do whatever the fuck they want to. I don't know what Anakin was tempted by, Rey is angry all the time, uses force lightning, a power only the most powerful sith can do, and is never tempted in the slightest, always making the morally perfect decisions and never giving in to any temptations. Just be incorruptible, Anakin! - You can force heal easily at no cost. Anakin's mother died for nothing, as did Padme. Anakin's whole turn to the dark side was made utterly ridiculous by this movie. Anakin trained for years, mastering everything he could, striving for more knowledge and wisdom to be powerful enough to save and protect those around him, when he could have just done everything he wanted by closing his eyes. Fucking hell Rey, is there anything you aren't perfect at. - He didn't even kill Palpatine. He didn't redeem himself. He didn't bring peace to the galaxy. He did bring order though, the First Order. Fucking hell, did he actually do anything right or did Rey seriously outclass him in every _single thing he ever did This trilogy just shits on everything that came before. Everyone in Star Wars sucks because Rey is just perfect at everything she does, and all the other characters, with their flaws, struggles and problems they have to overcome just look stupid compared to her and her god powers. I hate this trilogy so much omg words can't describe it”

Let’s look at how much damage was done by not showing Anakin and how much the Sequels destroyed Anakin’s story and legacy

Anakin never warns his children about Snokeatine preying over his grandson, just think if Anakin told them a powerful and ancient dark side user was targeting Ben, Han, Lando, Chewie, Luke and Leia all would’ve gotten together and killed Snoke and by doing that, killing the First/Final Order in the crib.

Anakin never tells his children Palpatine himself is alive. If Anakin told them the truth, he could’ve directed Luke and Leia to his wayfinder, then Orchi’s ship and the stupid knife map. They would find both wayfinders and Luke and Leia would’ve killed Palpatine on Exegol.

Anakin doesn't warn Leia that visions are not all they seem or how he lost himself because of a vision and tells her not to fall for the same trap he did.

Anakin never once visits his grandson during his Jedi training or his time as Kylo Ren and tell him his story, Anakin appearing before his grandson and telling him HIS SIDE of HIS STORY could’ve prevented Ben’s fall

Anakin by name is never mentioned

Rey, someone who believed Luke was only a myth. Suddenly knows that Luke redeemed Darth Vader(again, Anakin is never mentioned by name)

Anakin does not appear before his son in his time of need. Instead Yoda does. Anakin knew all there is about failure and what happens when you fall to the dark side. “failure, the greatest teacher is,” is bullshit. Yoda never learned this lesson to begin with. Yoda is the last person who should be saying anything like this to Luke. Anakin should have went to Luke, not Yoda. You know who would have been the perfect person to tell Luke that failure is the greatest teacher? His father, Anakin Skywalker. If anyone deserved that moment, it was Anakin Skywalker. Both because this should have been his chance to speak with his son AND because when someone is the embodiment of the failures of the Jedi Order, they’re really the one best qualified to call out the bullshit of that organization. Anakin would’ve been the best person to tell Luke to confront Kylo, his grandson. He knows failure more than anyone. Failing to save his mother, failing to save Padme, his failure into giving into the dark side and his fall. Anakin would’ve told him. “It wasn’t your fault what happened to Ben, I’m asking you to come back and save your sister, my daughter. Leia needs you. You never gave up on me. Don’t give up on your friends, your sister or even yourself. You saved me when I thought all was lost, there is still time to make things right. Remember you are a Jedi, like me. Not the last of the old Jedi, Luke. The first of the new.“

Anakin died to save his son. He does not attempt to save him.

The fact that Anakin didn’t even show up to speak to his son when he was at his lowest or when his son was literally dying , was just proof that Disney Lucasfilm didn’t care about him as a character or his story. Anakin’s redemption was saving his son, yet for some reason he just didn’t give a shit about him. There is not even a reason given as to why he didn’t show up.

Anakin does not appear before his grandson in his turning point. It should have been Anakin who met with Ben, not Han. No one knows more about Palpatine and the dark side than Anakin and revealing the truth could have destroyed the dark side’s hold over his grandson and brought him back to the light and unlike Harrison, Hayden actually wanted to be there. We needed the one moment between Anakin and his grandson. All they did with Han was make little to no sense and just repeat lines from TFA. Harrison is clearly there to collect that sweet Disney money lol he doesn’t like Star Wars or Han Solo, he returned to have Han killed off. Hayden Christensen, however loved Star Wars despite the hate that was directed towards him. He wanted to return to play Anakin one last time. and the perfect way for him to return and to guide his grandson back to the light was Anakin. Anakin knows more than anyone what the dark side can do and what Palpatine is capable of and how much pain he has inflicted. Kylo has always admired Vader, and Anakin can show the truth of how he was manipulated into betraying everything he loved and why the dark side is not the path he should be taking. I really hate to toot my own horn, but I wrote out a scene where Anakin’s force ghost visits his grandson and helped along his redemption. “I never wanted you to repeat my mistakes. That pull to the light you were feeling was always me. I wanted you to be better than I was, who I could have been” and showing Ben his memories and what he had to go through. His life as a slave, meeting Padme, meeting Obi-Wan, becoming a Jedi, losing his mother, Order 66, losing Padme and being saved by Luke and finally destroying Palpatine(lol but not really). And telling Ben “Let the light in. You still have a chance, no one is ever really gone“ Ben would then tell his grandfather “I know what I have to do, but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it.” Anakin puts his hand on his grandson and says “this time we’ll do it together.”

Anakin does not play a role in the defeat of the monster who destroyed his life. Anakin’s redemption, victory and the fulfillment of the Chosen One Prophecy is now meaningless. He doesn’t even return to face Palpatine or to even power up Ben and Rey. When Rey says "be with me" in the final fight. What should've happened is the force hears her pleas for help and sends Anakin to confront Sidious. Just imagine Palpatine:It cannot be....Lord Vader? Anakin:That name no longer has any meaning for me No, I am Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Master and the chosen one. Palpatine:So be it, "Jedi" Anakin with the help of Luke, Leia, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon and Yoda help Ben rise and empower Ben and Rey. Rey and Ben rise. Ben with his Grandfather’s lightsaber and Rey with Leia’s lightsaber deflecting Palpatine’s Lightning Palpatine"I AM ALL THE SITH! Rey and Ben:And we are the Skywalkers And together they deflect it back at Sidious. Once and for all, Anakin fulfills the prophecy, while not doing it directly, he guided his grandson and Rey and together they destroy the SIth and brings balance to the force. Then Anakin brings back Rey, and bids farewell to his grandson and fades in peace knowing that balance has been brought back and the force is in the safe hands of Rey and Ben.

The entire Skywalker Family goes extinct and everything Anakin fought and sacrificed for is completely meaningless

Anakin's Lightsaber is not recognized as his lightsaber, it is recognized as Luke's Lightsaber and Rey's Lightsaber. Luke has a Lightsaber of his own. He even used it for most of his life after the war as a Jedi master, yet it never makes it into the Sequel Trilogy outside of flashbacks. Where is it????? NO SERIOUSLY WHERE THE FUCK IS IT??????? Rey has a lightsaber of her own as well, but for SOME REASON, they needed Rey to have the Skywalker lightsaber and Leia’s Lightsaber throughout the whole movie. Rey cannot be defined on her own. She needs the Skywalker Lightsaber, she needs the falcon, she needs to be related to be Palpatine and she needed to take the Skywalker name in the end. Anakin doesn’t even get to be acknowledged as the master of his own lightsaber.

Rey steals Anakin's legacy as the chosen one. A PALPATINE STEALS THE SKYWALKER PROPHECY

Anakin’s Lightsaber was buried on Tatooine. Make all the “I don’t like sand” jokes you want. But this is like burying a possession of a freed slave in the remains of a slave plantation. Anakin and Shmi were slaves on this planet, his mother was brutally tortured and murdered, his step-brother and sister and Luke’s aunt and uncle were brutally murdered and his daughter was a Hutt’s sex slave. This is the absolute last place he’d ever want his Lightsaber to be buried. Every Skywalker and Solo hated Tatooine. Anakin wanted to escape a life of slavery and see the stars. Luke looks at that double sunset, longing to escape his mundane life, wanting to travel the galaxy to fight the good fight. Rey looks at the double sunset because it's supposed to pander to the OT fans. Bury Anakin’s Lightsaber in his wife’s mausoleum and his spirit would be at peace. But oh no, we can’t have that, the money needs it’s OT nostalgia and we can’t legitimize the prequels because this movie was made by a prequel hating asshole. I don’t understand why Luke’s Green Lightsaber was never used again. Could’ve been given to Finn and when he’s done, Rey helps him build a Lightsaber of his own. Then Rey can bury Luke, Leia, and Anakin’s Lightsabers in Padme’s mausoleum with Rey, Finn and Ben looking on as the force ghosts of Anakin, Luke and Leia looks on them in peace and it would be a fitting way to end the Skywalker Saga.

Anakin does not appear as a force ghost. He doesn’t see his grandson. He doesn’t see Rey. He doesn’t appear with Luke and Leia at the end of the movie. It’s like JJ Abrams has some sort of vendetta against the Prequels. This is what happens when an OT purist is given power.

Ben Solo dies and is not given a chance to earn his redemption and thus the Skywalker family dies out. He did terrible things as Kylo Ren, but if you want him to redeem himself, actually give him a redemption arc. When he feels his mother die, let him truly feel remorse for his actions Let him see the force ghosts of Luke and Anakin. They set him on the path to make things right. Ben and Rey stop Palpatine together, they kiss and Ben goes on a path of atonement. Ben gets in the falcon and takes Leia’s lightsaber and goes to every known First Order base with the intention of righting his wrongs and making things right. When he returns to Rey, they go to Naboo to place Anakin, Luke and Leia’s Lightsaber’s in Padme’s mausoleum and it ends with Rey and Ben holding hands as the Skywalker family looks on proud and happily that the future is in good hands. Like....Anakin, Leia and Luke would’ve wanted their family to live on and wanted Ben to live. It isn’t rocket science, Anakin would’ve wanted Ben to be given the chance he wasn’t given to redeem himself and live to tell the tale.

Bringing back Palpatine back destroyed Anakin’s entire arc. I don’t care if it happened in Legends. It was fucking stupid then and it was stupid now. The impact of Order 66? The Sequel Trilogy ruined it. I hate how the Sequel Trilogy really shat on this moment. Order 66 was a tragedy for the Clones, Jedi, Separatists, Mandalorians, Night Sisiters and even Maul. Everyone lost except Sidious. When Darth Vader threw him over the railing he was avenging basically everyone. But the Sequel Trilogy rewrites that moment and makes it redundant. In my book, the series timeline ends at the Mandalorian. The Prophecy of The Chosen One? It’s no longer about Anakin. He is no longer the one to destroy The Sith and to bring Balance to the Force. His fall and redemption? It’s now pointless, Palpatine’s clone body was the one that got destroyed, not Palpatine himself and he returned and built up the Empire stronger than ever. Anakin saving Luke and finally killing Palpatine was beautiful. Something that really makes Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker saving Luke beautiful in my mind is actually Anakin/Vader’s perspective. Qui-Gon was killed, his mother died a senseless death that he couldn't prevent, the Jedi Council was always wary of him and never took him seriously, Padme spurned him after he became Vader -- which he only did to protect her from dying -- and died anyway, his best friend hacked off all his limbs and left him to burn to death and Sidious manipulated and lied to him from the time he was a kid, only wanted him for his force powers to use as a glorified hitman and openly contemplated replacing him constantly after he lost his duel to Kenobi on Mustafar and was maimed. The dude either lost or was (in his mind) betrayed by basically everyone he ever knew and cared about, except his son, who even to the end never lost faith in him. He was beaten and helpless and Luke had just severed his hand. Sidious then goaded Luke to finish Vader off and become his new apprentice, but Luke refused to turn on his father. The minute he realized Luke was the only person who hadn't betrayed, used, abandoned or left him was the minute Vader died and Anakin returned. This, in a nut shell, is the story of Star Wars. It is the story of a child from Tattooine who was finally able to save someone he loved. Anakin has been manipulated by Palpatine since the moment he became a Jedi. Palpatine put visions of Padme’s death in his head until it was a reality. He went to the dark side to save his wife and children. He manipulated him into destroying the Jedi. He turned Anakin into Darth Vader and used Darth Vader as his enforcer. Until a moment of hope. His children lived. He thought all was lost until his son believed in him. In his final moments, his life, he saved his son and fulfilled the prophecy. Darth Vader is the ultimate villain deconstruction. He started out as a faceless monster to be defeated, a demon to be slain so peace would be restored. But Luke managed to look beneath the mask of intimidation and saw his father for what he truly was; a broken man who had been a slave his whole life and had lost all hope of redeeming himself. In the end Luke brought Anakin Skywalker back not because he convinced Vader to love him, because Anakin loved Luke since the moment he knew he would be born and never stopped loving him. And the decision to reveal that Palpatine didn’t really die and manipulated his grandson to kill Luke, that honestly cheapens Anakin’s arc. Just think with how he was brought back. They didn’t have an explanation. He is just there in the opening crawl. We didn’t hear his message in the movie, we heard it in fucking fortnite. And Poe’s line. “Somehow, Palpatine has returned” plays like a line from some kind of parody to Hollywood franchises. It’s actually... insulting. Like they are basically slapping us with “this is happening, we don’t have an explanation, just watch the damn movie and get us paid” without even the decency of trying to hide it. That line didn’t have to be in there. It revealed nothing, it provided no character development... it was literally just there to admit that the film really is as bad as you think. And of course, it’s something we HAVE to read in a book to figure out. If it’s not in your fucking movie, don’t fucking bother having it. Bringing back Palpatine made the first 6 movies entirely pointless. Palpatine outliving Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padme, Han Luke and Leia is the ultimate desecration of Star Wars. “it was always the plan to bring Palpatine back” and that is the problem. Its actually amazing how little the folks at Lucasfilm, Bad Reboot and Disney “get” Star Wars. Having the ultimate bad guy of the first 6 films live to see Episode 9 when the heroes who supposedly defeated him are long dead. It literally destroys the core mythology of the Star Wars universe and makes the selfless choices our characters made unrewarding. That’s just depressing. Their sacrifices and triumphs are ultimately undermined, devalued and utterly pointless. Moral of the story, nothing you did mattered, let the new generation clean up your mess because the money says so. And making Rey Palpatine’s granddaughter, killing EVERY LIVING Skywalker and having a Palpatine steal the legacy of the Skywalkers is desecration of Star Wars. Rey isn’t related to the Skywalkers it’s so creepy that she stole everything from them. She stole the falcon, she stole Luke’s lightsaber, she stole their family name. She stole Anakin and Luke’s ultimate victory over Palpatine. Their legacy. Palpatine won…..This is disgusting. The Skywalkers all dying and Rey taking the name is an exact summation of this trilogy. Tearing down all the old heroes and everything they did just for the new ones to do the same exact thing. Just to prop Rey up? You CAN build up new characters without tearing down the old characters and their legacy. Everything in this trilogy was done to break down and humiliate the characters we cared about and imitate something that was done in the past and has no substance.

Rey didn’t need to be a Palpatine or take the Skywalker name. This isn’t me hating on Rey. Rey can be a great character by standing on her own. Rey being related to NO ONE was powerful and shows us that even someone who came from Jakku can be a powerful Jedi. She doesn’t earn anything on her own. She downloaded all of Kylo’s abilities. She took the Falcon, she made Chewbacca her personal uber, she took BB-8 from Poe and buried Anakin and Leia’s lightsaber on the literal symbolic oppression of the Skywalker family instead of something peaceful like Naboo or Ach-To. She has her own Lightsaber, but never uses it. Rey being a Palpatine and taking the Skywalker name undoes the beautiful story the revelation TLJ had does. She didn’t need to be a Palpatine and she didn’t need to take the Skywalker name or even their relics. Rey Nobody works. Here’s why. Rey’s story is her own, it is not her parents, it is not about where she came from, it’s about where she is going, and who she decides to become. Maz Kanata said “The belonging you seek is not behind you. It is in front of you.” Rey in the TFA trailers said “I’m no one” Rey never thought or wanted her parents to be important in TFA, she was literally going to pass up adventure and being important to stay on Jakku because what she wanted was her family to finally come home. She didn't want to be important or wanted her parents to be important. The audience wanted that. Any more lingering discussion of the possibility of Rey’s parents being ‘somebody’ only is distracting you from the actually beautiful story that is being told. Rey is a story of a girl who raised herself, who held onto hope for people who didn’t deserve it, she is a story of how light can be born from darkness, and Rey is story of someone who was scared of her own truth—but then finally faced it. Rey being a Nobody is the story I was skeptical of at first, but grew to love, the story that gives me more hope than any Rey Skywalker or Rey Solo story ever would. Rey calling herself "Rey Skywalker" was so forced and unnecessary because all the whiny pissants did not like that a girl was skilled and powerful in her own right and because Rey did not have a good relationship with Luke in the first place. JJ was so set in just making Rey a Luke clone that it just undoes character development. If Rey had to take a name, Solo or Organa would make the most sense since she actually had a relationship with Han, Leia and Ben. Say what you want about how RIan Johnson handled Rey in TLJ. At least he treated Rey like her own person, with her own journey, and her own desires and fears, rather than consigning her to be a vessel for OT nostalgia. And at least he allowed her to actually have a new outfit and new hair style. At least he let her change. Like him or not, Rian Johnson treated Rey with more respect and identity than JJ Abrams ever did. It means more than making her related to anyone because Rey was every lonely girl who wanted to be a part of something but didn't feel like they belonged. Every woman who learned to make her way in the world alone. Every person who clung to hope when they had nothing left. She is so many things to so many people. Rey Nobody can be fierce, angry and powerful without it connecting to a man or evil bloodline. She can love, be curious and emotional without being weak. She is a scavenger, a Jedi, and one half of a powerful Dyad. She is Rey of Jakku and that's all we needed. Rey calling herself a Skywalker denied her every last inch of who she was. Her character arc was ruined to please men that thought her power needed to be connected to a man for it to make sense. All we needed her arc to be was Rey accepting that she needs to be her own hero and loving herself for who she is, rather than who she wanted her hypothetical parents to be. And honestly Rey in TROS was a huge disappointment. Her entire character arc was regressed, she's back to wearing the buns and dressed all in white and sticks to the glorification of the Jedi. It's like everything she learned in the last movie never happened. And honestly her character in TROS is what men think a "strong female character" is She fights, but they don’t have to deal with her processing internal pain. She loves, but they don’t have to deal with her fully exploring her desires. She’s a “badass,” & for them that is enough. When I say "A Palpatine is left and steals the legacy of the Skywalkers" I am not suggesting she doesn't deserve the title. I am saying that essentially, Palpatine won. Anakin, Padme, Luke, Han, Leia and Ben are all dead. Leia died for nothing. Leia deserved to see her son come home, and to see the end of the monster who ruined her family. She didn’t deserve to feel her child die. The entire line of the family is now extinct. The wiki even says "the extinction of the family name" what kind of depressing garbage is this? JJ Abrams ended the entire Skywalker saga on Palpatine successfully using love to manipulate, corrupt, hurt or kill every single Skywalker across three generations, ultimately resulting in the total eradication of the Skywalker, Solo and Amidala bloodlines, whilst Palpatine's heir lives on and claims the Skywalker name and legacy. Rey calling herself "Rey Skywalker" was patronizing and insulting and demeans what Rey's journey meant in the first two movies to everyone who loved her. Rey coming from Jakku and nothing but rising up as a heroic Jedi means more than "you have his power...you are a Palpatine" or "Rey Rey Skywalker" ever will. Women Of The Galaxy author Amy Ratcliffe says it best. “Even beyond the trappings of the Star Wars saga — the First Order, the Resistance, the Force — Rey’s story is inspiring, familiar, and timeless. Just because you come from nothing doesn’t mean you’re not part of the story. You’re not no one, because anybody can save the galaxy. Anybody.“

If anyone still cannot understand my problem with bringing back Palpatine and why I find it narratively offensive. Just imagine this. What if Harry discovered that Dumbledore was wrong and Voldemort had far more than 7 horcruxes? Ashamed and afraid, he hides Ginny and the Potter children among the muggles. A defeated Ron returns to the burrow, while Hermione spends her days searching for Horcruxes. Years later, a 17 year old, Rachel Marvela Riddle, begins discovering her new powers, despite never receiving her Hogwart’s letter. Her magic is incredibly strong, but she is everything Tom was not. With the help of some friends, she tracks down the remaining Horcruxes and finally destroys the true Voldemort, for good and realsies this time! Also she starts calling herself the Girl Who Lived. This is the plot of Disney’s Star Wars Sequel Trilogy.. What if Harry didn’t actually destroy Voldemort? What if The One Ring survived Mt. Doom? Interesting concepts, but they would devalue everything that came before. The entire point of the Sequel Trilogy is disregarding generations of storytelling because no one behind this trilogy had any original or creative stories to tell. This is how Star Wars dies, with uncreativity and greed.

Anakin Skywalker’s story and family was destroyed, belittled, insulted and stolen by a Palpatine. Hell, even from a certain point of view PALPATINE WON! AGAIN!

#Anakin Skywalker #Anti Lucasfilm #Anti TROS #Anti TFA #Anti TLJ #Anti JJ Abrams #Anti Rian Johnson #Anti Kathleen Kennedy

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dgcatanisiri · 3 years

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I’ve said before, the kindest I’ll be to TLJ is to say that it’s a decent first draft, but... It’s DISCONNECTED from TFA, the movie that IMMEDIATELY precedes it. No one brings up Starkiller - not even pointing out that Poe’s actions and reactions could easily be considered PTSD from the torture and trauma if they wanted to frame him as being in the wrong, no, he’s just written off as a hotheaded maverick who needs a lesson in humility from Holdo - Finn shakes off the coma in moments, Rey has no reason to give a bisected fuck about Kylo, yet immediately becomes infatuated with him, Luke left a map in TFA but wanted to just be left to die in TLJ... Nothing in this movie has any ties to the movie that came before. Which, honestly, just meant that, to conclude the story of the sequels, the one TFA started, TRoS basically had to downplay things left over from TLJ - hell, TRoS at least ACKNOWLEDGES events in TLJ, which is honestly a lot more than TLJ seems willing to do with TFA, despite, again, taking place almost immediately before it.

And then there’s the internal plot - the timeline is a convoluted mess (the Resistance is under an explicit sixteen hour ticking clock, yet Finn and Rose jaunt off to and back from Canto Bight - a disposable point in the plot ANYWAY, considering that Finn and Rose don’t even accomplish the goal they went there for - in the middle of a fuel crisis, AND Rey’s training is explicitly taking place over days if not weeks, but she manages to arrive in the nick of time, while still having real time Force communication with Kylo, who is with the ships chasing the Resistance). The First Order has the military might and strength of the Empire with no acknowledgment of the personnel loss that losing Starkiller - a weapon built out of a goddamn PLANET - must have been. Leia and Holdo both hold Poe losing people against the dreadnaught against him, when a) one man fighters have been established in this universe to be hyperdrive capable in all trilogies, so there was no reason to hold the fleet there, b) taking out the dreadnaught made tactical sense, given the firepower it had and the manpower on board - 200,000 crew! Combined with Starkiller, that should be a MAJOR blow to the FO, but, because this is TLJ, the FO just has infinite resources from no where, and c) the dreadnaught is the kind of target you’re SUPPOSED to use those bomber fighters for, if they couldn’t take going up against it, they should have been scrapped for parts ages ago.

Like... I’m sorry, but if you want to trashtalk Rise of Skywalker on the plot level, you have to start with the fact that TLJ left them with no real conclusion to be had - the Resistance is left with enough people to be carried in the beat up weed van that is the Millennium Falcon, while the First Order SHOULD have been reduced to maybe a cruiser’s worth of troops. Because they weren’t the Empire, built on the bones of the Republic that had stood for a thousand generations. They were a fringe group, pushed out to the margins of the galaxy, where they built in secret - which means that if they’d made a major production push of a fleet capable of taking on the New Republic, which DID get a lot of the resources of the Empire as it collapsed, SOMEBODY would have noticed it and done something. When TLJ closes, both sides are basically at a stalemate with neither of them capable of striking back. They just don’t have the manpower or the resources anymore. I’ve said for years, when TLJ, I do NOT feel a sense of hope for the future, like the previously downbeat endings in this franchise - AotC may have started the Clone Wars, but Anakin and Padme get a tender moment together, a respite in the storm. RotS has the Empire ascendant, but Luke and Leia are with loving families and the new hope is intact. ESB has Lando and Chewie heading off to find Han and Luke has been fitted with a new hand - they’re ready to keep going. TLJ just feels like both sides played out the fight to the inevitable conclusion of everyone being left with nothing but ash.

TLJ was F - L - A - W - E - D. And I’m not saying that TRoS is beyond reproach or anything - I’m pissed that they reduced Rose to basically nothing, Palpatine didn’t really need to be there, Finn deserved to do more than shout “Rey!” through most of his screentime, especially when they had the stormtrooper rebellion subplot to work with... But a lot of the plot level flaws of TRoS stem out of the way that TLJ left things. Not all, but it was NOT this groundbreaking thing that changed the game. I honestly end up with the feeling that it was just a first draft that, due to the ridiculously fast pace of pumping out this trilogy, went straight to filming with like no editorial oversight.

Which is a failure when we’re talking about movie two of a trilogy and movie eight of a saga. The whole trilogy fails to be a cohesive whole, in large part because for some ungodly reason, the plan had been to rotate writers for each part AND give those writers almost no time to weld their stories together. JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson, say what you will about them as storytellers or people, are both VERY different in their styles, and making the two try to mesh... doesn’t work. Lord knows what would have happened if Trevorrow’s ideas had made it out of the concept phase, but it wouldn’t have been better, just had more tonal clash, because, again, we have a different writer with a different style who sees different things out of the movie and the franchise.

The problems of the sequels are foundational. But the movies ALL have their own individual problems. You can shake off most of the problems in TFA by viewing it as set up... But then TLJ tosses aside a lot of what is being set up - TFA is clearly setting up a Finn-Rey dynamic, but, to fit the way that Rian Johnson’s already planning TLJ, Rey has to go off on her own. TFA has Finn wielding that lightsaber multiple times, so VERY clearly indicating he’s Force sensitive, to the point of being narratively framed as the counterpoint to Kylo, but they never interact again and TLJ reduces him to bumbling comic relief. TFA speaks of the Knights of Ren, presumably students from Luke’s academy who joined Kylo, but then they’re gone in TLJ and are functionally replaced with the Praetorian Guard. Snoke gets a lot of fanfare as being this hidden manipulator of Kylo from birth, then gets tossed out of the plot in TLJ with no explanation of his motivations.

Just... Look, I get that TRoS was a disappointment in a lot of ways, but it really was, for the most part... Honestly, all we were ever going to GET after TLJ. Because there wasn’t a continuation offered by TLJ, other than reusing the characters. TLJ was telling a story all its own, unconcerned with connecting with the rest of the series. It wasn’t a deconstruction with intent to reconstruct, in the way that KOTOR 2 was. It was demolition, taking a battering ram to the established foundation, trying to build something ELSE in its place.

#dg rants #anti tlj #the last jedi critical #i swear i want to let this go #but i see so many people praise tlj to high heaven #and it was just NOT that good #i rated it about high c/low b walking out of the theater #and as i saw all this 'best movie ever' stuff #i was just like... 'no i've seen better seen worse but seen better'#and when i take it in the overall whole of the star wars tapestry #it just REALLY stands out as being not even remotely WORTH this kind of hype #like i'll ride or die that the prequels are better as a unified whole #but i don't get why tlj is where people want to be ride or die for

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zeawesomebirdie · 2 years

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Right? Hux is my go-to example of the mess that happened because of the back and forth between two directors because the change between ep7 and ep8, and then whatever the fuck was ep9, that was uuh... It was. Like the bar wasn't even that high but they really managed to fuck it up. Of course they weren't going to detail his comics backstory and give him 20 minutes of screen time but some vague respect for the characters y'know? The minute of screen time and then Pryde shoots him and he dies off screen, like - come ON. The mere thing where he immediately becomes a traitor when that's the last decision he would make?? I can't write to save my life and I'm terrible at characterisation but even I could tell you that's bad! Unless you want to make it canon he and Kylo had a thing to justify the change of heart, but we all know what a bunch of cowards Disney is. ANYWAY you're right he deserved so much better

Okay I have so much to say about this topic, I literally waited until this morning to answer this so I could try to get my words as clear as possible lmao. Thanks for your patience Ram, and thanks for the ask <3

Before we begin though, this is all my opinion please dont flame me lmao

I can understand that having multiple directors over the course of a trilogy will be difficult, especially in the case of the sequels, where the story and vision for the trilogy was not clearly defined at the beginning. (We've all seen the meme of that one interview with the one director who was like, paraphrased, making it up as he went along). But considering this is d*sney, one of the largest corporations in the world failing this much on a massive franchise that they decided to buy? Thats unexcusable. They clearly were not prepared for these movies, and its really unfortunate because there is a lot of good that can be said of the sequels.

Now, im sure after the prequels being what they were we shouldn't have expected too much. (I say that like the prequels aren't my favorite trilogy of the three). Im sure we're all familiar with the prequels hate, and I honestly have to say I'm not sure how much of that is deserved and how much of it is simply a fandom who had their headcanons squashed. Someone older than me, whos been around long enough to see that fallout, might have better insight. So perhaps we should have expected that the sequels would fall short of our expectations, right? Not necessarily, actually.

Im not sure about you, (or anyone reading this), but I remember finding TFA an excellent movie, as did the majority of tumblr at the time. It wasn't until the reddit bros and the more inflammatory people in fandom started to recognize the potential of the reylo ship, along with the release of TLJ that the sequels started getting shit. There was also definitely a massive shift in tone from TFA to TLJ, which you totally noticed, particularly in Hux's story arc.

Then the story started to not make sense entirely, up until we get to TRoS, where,,,,, well,,,, nothing makes sense in the context of the rest of the franchise. There was clearly a lack of cohesion, but you also nailed it with it being a disrespect of the characters and a disrespect of the franchise as a whole. Theres definitely been a push in the last 5-10 years to push out more and more mediocre movies that, as long as they hold the name "Marvel" or "Disney" or "Star Wars," will still do well. And there's definitely a point to that, ofc, considering the sequels got the SW fandom so much more interest, to the point of reylo being one of the top ships on tumblr for the last several years.

So how does this all boil down to how we analyze Armitage Hux? Well, quite frankly, the movies didn't offer enough of his story to really say anything about him. Disrepect for the character aside, there's also been a recent (as in, the last 15-20 years) push to leave "unnecessary" details out of the source material. The first example to come to mind is JK Rowling's tweeting and interviews saying that Dumbledore is gay, despite nothing in any of the books or movies saying so. That d*sney has Hux's entire backstory, of which there isn't very much, confined to the comics, shouldn't be entirely surprising.

But it also opens up issues, such as, how did this character, who we see for less than 20 minutes over over course of a 6+ hour trilogy, end up betraying the very thing he is said to have helped build? We as fans can make up theories all we like, but there is never a canon explanation beyond "Kylo Ren must lose," which, is the dumbest reason and im glad we can all agree on that. The only real logic that can come from that is that yes, he and Kylo had a failed thing, becuase this is exactly the petty shit both of them would do.

And when I say he deserved better, its not just the treatment of him being a traitor. Everything with Brendol abusing him from such a young age, to being a child soldier on Jakku, to being born into a war that should have ended with Palp's death; all of that could have made a dynamic, fascinating villain that we could have all rooted for when he betrayed the First Order. Instead we got,,, this. And its really quite pathetic, to see this character that has been slowly fleshed out since the sequels came out through the comics, with the knowledge that unless one happens to be aware of the comics they will have no idea the depths of trauma this character has been through.

Now, im just a fanfiction writer. I know nothing about movies. But I have to say, the sequels did not have anything close to a consistent characterization, especially in regards to Hux and Kylo towards the end. Again, lack of cohesion, disrespect of the characters and the franchise, etc. But it really is incredibly frustrating to know that us fans put more effort into our backstories for these characters than d*sney themselves. And we can all joke around and say we'd be better at making the movies than d*sney and George Lucas and etc, but yknow, maybe we're a little right about that.

All of this to say, im incredibly disappointed in d*sney's approach to the sequels, especially in regards to Hux, but the entire trilogy really suffered from this.

#i dont know what to tag this #i hope you dont mind me like #info dumping at you lmao #im incredibly passionate about this honestly #(if that wasnt obvious)#hux deserved better #thats what im trying to get at here #thanks for the ask though lmao #asks #damn this took forever to type up

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yelena-bellova · 4 years

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Don’t Be Afraid: Poe Dameron x Solo!Reader - Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven: Two Roads Diverged

Series Masterlist

Plot: Y/n and Ben confront each other after years of not seeing each other.

Warnings: Language, minor character death, violence, angst but that’s fairly obvious.

Word Count: 5.5k

A/N: Without a doubt, this was the hardest chapter to write so far. I had to take periodical breaks because I was hurting my own heart 😂 The title is also inspired by the Robert Frost poem. The next chapter will be the last one that takes place during TFA and then it’s onto TLJ! (Excuse the uncountable amount of typos)

——————

“Come on, Ben, where are you?” Y/n mumbled to herself, Yavin 4 was large and she was looking for one person. She didn’t know where her uncle had built his training academy and the pitch black night sky didn’t help her in her search. She wasn’t near giving up though, she’d fly the entirety of the planet to make sure that her brother was safe.

Use the Force, Y/n…

She almost steered the Falcon into a clearing of trees she was so spooked by the voice she’d heard. She turned around to see who had stowed away on the ship, yet found no one.

Use the Force to find him, Y/n

She shook her head and turned back around, “I’m going insane, I have to be.”

Let it guide you to where you need to go...

Y/n growled, she’d seen and heard more ridiculous things, “Okay, Force entity or whatever the hell you are, we’ll do it your way.”

She shut her eyes, as she’d seen her mother do several times, and tried for the first time to let the Force guide her. Her hands rested on the controls of the Falcon as it hovered above an empty field, waiting for her captain to tell her where to go. Y/n breathed deeply as she tried to picture where Ben was, after a moment she saw the temple’s structure clearly and opened her eyes. She turned the ship left and sped towards where she needed to be. She couldn’t explain the intricacies of how she knew that she was near it, she just knew.

Her dreadful suspicions were confirmed when she saw the flames.

Y/n landed the Falcon far enough away that it wasn’t in danger of being catching on fire and booked it down the ramp. The smoke caused her to cough but she ran towards the collapsing building regardless.

“BEN!!” she screamed, “Ben, where are you?!”

Littering the ground were dead bodies of Padawans, the stench of death covered only by the overwhelming scent of the fire. Y/n began to panic as she checked the lifeless faces for Ben’s. She turned in circles, frantically scanning for any sign of her brother, or anyone still alive for that matter. After a few minutes of searching, a shriek rang through the air that caused her to whip around,

“RUN!!”

A young girl was running towards her as if her life depended on it, “Run!!”

Y/n looked around confusedly as to what she was supposed to be running from, but found nothing. When she turned back to the girl, she was suspended in the air clawing at her throat manically. She looked like she was trying to scream for help, but the life drained from her face before Y/n could try and aid her. The girl’s eyes closed and she crumpled to the ground to reveal the culprit of her murder.

Ben stood behind her with an outstretched hand and a menacing glare.

Y/n stood frozen, shock overtaking her body as she watched her brother drop his posture at the sight of her. He jogged over to his sister, a concerned look on his face,

“Y/n, what are you doing here?”

As Ben approached her, she took a step back from him and held a hand up in self defense, “Ben, what the hell was that? What’s happened here?”

“Luke,” he stated, “He sensed my power, he tried to kill me. He turned most of his students against me too.”

“W-What?” Y/n stuttered, “How is that possible?” “He’s afraid of what I can do,” Ben stated, full of pride and anger, “I’ve discovered more power than him or any other Jedi could ever dream of having. And he,” he pointed towards the burning wreckage “Tried to kill me in order to stop me from fulfilling my destiny.”

“Ben, that can’t be true. Y-your destiny is to be a Jedi, why would Uncle Luke want you dead?”

“No, the Jedi are a dying breed, as they deserve to be. I’ve put an end to them, and Luke received what was coming to him.”

“Ben,” Y/n whispered, “What did you do to him?”

Ben’s eyes bore into Y/n’s, adding to the intensity of their moment, “I killed him.” Y/n stumbled back, her hand shakily reaching up to cover her mouth. Her brother, her best friend, had killed their uncle and his students. She couldn’t even recognize the person standing in front of her, this wasn’t the Ben she’d grown up with. And while she hadn’t been there to witness what had transpired, she knew that he was telling her a distorted side of the story. It couldn’t have been that simple as Luke trying to kill his own nephew.

“Did you do all of this?” she raised her voice while pointing to the burning temple, “The fire? How many other Padawans did you kill? What am I supposed to tell Mom when she finds out you killed her brother?”

“Don’t go back, come with me.” “What are you talking about?” “Y/n,” Ben stepped towards her, she was in just enough shock to not back away from his presence, “We both know the gift you have, the power you hold if you just gave into it. Snoke could teach us both, if you come with me.” “Who’s Snoke?” Y/n asked.

“He’s wise, he’s opened my eyes to the true nature off the Jedi. He’ll take us both as apprentices,” Ben urged as twisted joy rose in his voice, “You and I could bring order to the galaxy together.” Y/n couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She knew that the Dark Side now surrounded her brother, she could see it in his darker than usual eyes. The way he spoke of murdering their uncle and the power he contained, it wasn’t Ben. But she refused to believe that he was completely gone.

“No,” she said, worry audible in her voice, “Ben, whoever this Snoke is, he-he’s messing with your mind somehow. This is not who you are,” she took his hand, “Come home with me, I’ll help you. Mom can help you. Just come back home.” Ben’s brows furrowed, his face hardened and he yanked his hand out of Y/n’s grip, “You’re turning into one of them, a Jedi.” He spat the last word as if it was poison, Y/n shook her head quickly, “Ben, I’m not a Jedi, I’m your sister and I don’t believe the things you’re saying. This isn’t my brother-”

“Your brother is dead!” he yelled.

Y/n’s breath caught in her chest at Ben’s words, he looked like a mad man. Hair untamed, pupils blown in the worst way, jaw clenched and a threatening stance. Tears began to flood her eyes, there was no way to reason with him.

“If you’re going to go down this path,” she cried, “Do not expect me to follow you.” She didn’t make it more than three steps when her brother took hold of her arm with a vice like grip, keeping her in place.

“If you’re not with me, you’re against me.” Ben whispered ominously.

Y/n looked up, taking in the possibilities of what might happen next. There was only one if Ben was only dealing in black or white choice making, and Y/n was sure it was going to break her heart. “Then I suppose I’m against you.”

The siblings stared each other down much like they had when they were bickering children, the temple’s flames spreading around them. Y/n had stupidly left her blaster in the ship, she had no weapons on her while her brother had his clipped to his waist. She looked down and saw her brother’s hand slowly move to his saber, as if to not alarm her to his plan. Ben didn’t give his sister enough credit for how attentive or quick she was, her eyes flickered again to his movements and snapped into action. She shot her hand out and summoned the freed lightsaber to her hand, igniting it quickly and raising it. Ben’s eyes swelled with rage, she’d been practicing using the Force while he’d been away and she wasn’t going to make it easy on him. Though he could see the anguish in her eyes at the though of fighting him, he could try and use her emotions against her to catch her off guard.

His opened his free palm behind him, the lightsaber from the deceased Padawan flying from her hand and into his. Y/n saw it zoom through the air and as he ignited to raise the blue blade, she pried her arm from his grip and turned to meet it with her own. She’d only held a lightsaber once in her life, when she was a child and Luke let her try his out, much to Han and Leia’s chagrin. She didn’t have the training or skill that Ben did, but she was determined not to let her brother hurt her. She had to fight him, the person she loved most in the galaxy, even if it almost killed her.

Ben spun around with his blade with the goal of hitting her torso, but Y/n moved fast enough to block his hit. She walked backwards in fear as Ben moved towards her with an animalistic look in his eyes, like she was prey to be slaughtered. He raised his saber above his head and slammed the blade against hers with so much force, Y/n thought she might drop her weapon. She held tight to it and took a clumsy swing at his leg, which he easily dodged. He aimed again at her abdomen, a hit he almost made if she hadn’t thought quick and spun to her right, just as he’d done a moment before. Ben was her teacher, he was showing her how to fight without him even realizing it. Though the strikes he was trying to make were to kill, the ones she made were to block. Ben’s vision was compromised, the only end goal he had at the moment was to eliminate anyone who objected to his twisted endeavors. In that moment, Y/n realized that she may not be exempt from his delusions simply because she was family.

Ben growled as he swung his saber towards her legs, Y/n sprung into the air and crouched down when she hit the ground again to dodge the swing he took in the air above her. Ben swept her legs out from under her, Y/n fell on her back and watched as Ben lowered his blade towards her neck. He was going to kill her. She raised her lightsaber up to meet his and let out a cry as their eyes met, she’d never thought in a million years that they’d be in this position. She pushed the blade away and rose to her feet quickly, tears began to hit her cheeks. She began moving backwards again, closer to the flaming temple as they twisted their wrists to block each other’s hits. The heat that surrounded them was harsh, sweat began to bead and stream down their faces. After dodging another hit from Ben, Y/n kicked him in the stomach and caused him to fall back, but she made no effort to try and run from him. She’d seen what had happened to the helpless Padawan. She stood there amongst the flames, awaiting her brother’s next move,

“Don’t do this, Ben,” Y/n yelled, “I love you.”

He snarled as he stood up and came charging towards her, Y/n spun around and raised her blade to meet the one that come crashing down against it. They were facing away from each other, back to back and weapons raised, the flames closing in on them with only a tight path left to escape. Y/n was putting all the strength she had into pushing Ben’s saber away, but he was much stronger than her and she felt her body giving into it’s sadness.

“Don’t do this to me, Ben,” she whined, the lump in her throat practically choking her, “Please don’t make me do this.”

“There is nothing,” Ben hissed from behind me, “You could possibly do that could hurt me.” Y/n groaned as she tried to continue pushing Ben’s blade away from slicing through her chest, when suddenly a memory came into her mind,

“Wanna bet?” Summoning all the strength she could, she shoved up and pushed the saber away from her. She ran through the flames and they licked at her legs, she could hear Ben’s cry of anger and that was her cue to stop running. She turned around to see her brother sprinting towards her, a few hundred feet away, lightsaber drawn and furious. Y/n raised a hand up towards him and used the Force to shove Ben backwards, he flew through the air and landed painfully after slamming into a tree.

Y/n’s eyes pooled with fresh tears as she waited a few seconds to see if he would rise, when he didn’t she ran to his limp body. She knelt down next to him, he was knocked out cold. She shakily placed her fingers against his neck to feel for a pulse, holding her own breath until she found his. Was she supposed to be relieved? Ben had fallen to the Dark Side, had tried to kill her in his manic state, yet it was her innocent brother that lay helpless in front of her right then. She took a few seconds to sob over him, thinking of their parents, their home, all the memories she cherished with him. He’d been the one to bring her to Han and Leia, she owed him everything for what he had done for her. He had given her a new life, one he would now be absent from.

“I’m not going to give up on you,” she promised, “One day, I’ll bring you back home.” With that, she gently touched his hand, deactivated her lightsaber and ran towards the Falcon. Once she was in the air, she set course for a return to Chandrila and jumped to lightspeed. She wept furiously in the pilot’s seat at what her brother had done, what she’d done, how their lives had just taken two very unexpected turns. And while she had promised to bring him back, she knew it would be a long time before she ever saw him again. Y/n had thrown the lightsaber on the co-pilot’s seat when she’d entered the cockpit, she hesitantly picked it back up and examined it. Ben had committed horrible acts with the weapon, he’d slaughtered their uncle and his students, he’d tried to kill his own sister. She should have left it there, but something in her compelled her to take it. She had no intention of picking it up ever again, unless she needed to, though she felt safer holding onto it. She hid it in a deep pocket of her coat, and vowed to never show it to anyone. For the rest of the journey home, she sat with her knees to her chest crying.

Han and Leia were waiting outside when she returned. After making sure she was okay, they were both furious with her. They demanded to know where she’d gone, she lied and said that she hadn’t been able to sleep and decided to take a flight. She apologized, went inside and locked herself in her room for the day.

A few days later, she planned on telling them the truth. But before she could, an X-Wing showed up outside the Solo homestead. It was Luke. He had survived somehow and broke the news to their family that Ben had turned to the Dark Side. Han yelled, Leia sobbed, but Y/n stayed silent.

Han and Leia separated soon after that, Y/n chose to stay with her mother. Han had agreed she should, he was planning to return to a life of smuggling and didn’t want his daughter caught up in the business. Han took Chewie, Y/n and Leia took C-3PO and the Solos abandoned their home.

Luke went into hiding.

The First Order rose to power.

The Resistance was formed.

For the rest of the galaxy, the war began at a certain point in time. No one knew that the war truly began on Yavin 4, the night that a brother and sister aimed their weapons at each other. —————

“You’re a monster!”

I stood silent, my tears freezing to my face as I stood face to face with my brother. There weren’t enough words to describe how I was feeling at the sight of him…Furious for having just killed our father, heartbroken over the fact that he had slipped further into the Dark Side, and determined to protect Finn and Rey from his wrath.

“It’s just us now,” Ben’s eyes flickered to me, “Han Solo can’t save you.” The remark hit home, but he was about to learn that we could defend ourselves quite effectively. Especially after the events that had transpired through the day.

Rey grunted and raised her blaster towards him before I could tell her to drop it, Ben raised his hand and she flew through the air screaming. Finn yelled her name just before she hit a tree and fell to the snow covered ground. I stood there watching in horror, Finn raced to her side and cradled her head in his lap.

“I thought you might appreciate that,” Ben said, causing me to flashback to six years ago when I’d done the same thing to him, “Irony can be cruel, can’t it?” I turned to him, a new wave of anger sweeping over me as I examined my brother’s state. His injury from Chewie’s shot was bleeding, turning the snow beneath his side to a red dotted pattern. “I didn’t believe it when I felt your presence,” he remarked, “I didn’t think you’d be so foolish as to come here.” “It was foolish of you to think I wouldn’t try and stop what you’re doing here,” I retorted, my tears had stopped for now to be replaced by rage, “If you think I’m going to let you get away with what you did, you’re insane.”

He took a slow step towards me, looking me over, “You’ve been training, you’ve kept your powers hidden, you don’t want anyone to know the truth.”

“Get the hell out of my head, Ben,” I growled, stepping towards him.

“You hide it from your mother, you’re afraid that when she looks at you, she’ll see her son.” “Stop it.” We were circling each other, glaring and waiting for the other to make the first move.

“You don’t want your precious pilot to know, or else he may be afraid of you.” “I swear, if you don’t stop-“ “He was here the other day, you know. I searched his mind too, and the first thing I saw was you.” “You’re going to pay for what you did to him.” “And the one person who believed in you, the one person who saw what you could do and didn’t fear you-“ “Shut the fuck up or else-“ “Is dead!” I let out a cry, unclipped my lightsaber and ignited the blade. I surged forward with every intention of silencing him, but he’d been expecting it and met my saber with his own. We attacked and blocked each other’s hits at a dizzying speed, both of us had grown in our skillset over the past six years. We began to move through the forest as we fought, a few tree branches becoming collateral damage. I swung furiously, much like he had attacked me years ago while he stayed more calculated. I let my anger guide me in my attack, Ben had fucked my life up long ago but now, he had gone way too far. He’d captured Poe, he’d probably tortured him, he’d taken Rey, he’d injured her, he was planning to kill everyone in the Resistance and he’d murdered our father. I had every right to what I was feeling. We spun around each other, our sabers hit and we pushed into our stance, face to face,

“How are you going to live with yourself after what you did in there? You killed our father,” I snarled.

“Our father?” Ben grunted, struggling to hold his position for a fleeting second, “Ben Solo is dead. And he was never your father, you’re a worthless orphan who your brother should have left to die. You were never really a part of their family.”

“FUCK YOU!” I exclaimed, shoving Ben backwards and sending him stumbling for his footing. He regained it quickly as I launched myself at him, me expertly swinging the blade and him perfectly dodging them every time. The worst part was, he looked almost pleased when I’d come at him. It was like he wanted me to keep attacking him.

At one point, he slammed his blade down on top of mine above our heads and we grasped onto one another’s forearm. We looked like mirror images of each other with our jaws clenched and strained sounds escaping our throats.

“You want to kill me, don’t you?” he taunted, “I can feel your anger, you want to avenge him.” I groaned as we pushed against each other, putting all my strength into holding my stance,

“I should.”

Ben panted, “That anger, you need to give into it. Y/n,”

The eye contact we made was softened at the mention of my name, for just a second we felt like siblings again. I saw him hesitate and felt his genuine need for my presence back in his life. It may have been six years since we’d last seen each other, but he’d trained with our uncle for years before that. It had been 12 years since we’d simply been Y/n and Ben.

“Join me. Don’t be afraid of who you are.”

His words were, ironically, like waking up from a bad dream. I realized the position I was in; ready to kill my brother in a fit of rage, breaking the promise I’d made that night amongst the flames. This wasn’t me, this wasn’t going to be how I avenged my father. He’d been the one to inspire me to stop fearing the gift I possessed, his words had been what had swayed me. In no way was I about to let Ben’s blow me in the other direction.

I did the unthinkable and deactivated my blade with Ben’s only a few inches from my face. He stumbled forward a bit but caught himself and stopped his saber from slicing my throat. I stepped back, breathing heavily as our eyes met again, he was expectantly waiting for my answer,

“No, I’m not this. Dad did believe in me, just like he believed in you and I won’t let what he did for me be done in vain.”

Whatever softness I’d seen in Ben’s eyes disappeared as soon as I’d mentioned our father. His scowl returned, the same one that had scared me the last time we’d fought. He let out a growl and came charging towards me, saber drawn. I barely had time to raise my weapon before an identical blue blade clashed against Ben’s from our side. I turned, coming face to face with Finn,

“Get to Rey.” Finn put all of his weight into pushing my brother’s saber away before drawing him away from me. I listened and ran back to where we’d started, back to where Rey still lay unconscious. I knelt down in the snow and lifted her limp torso into my arms,

“Rey, wake up,” I shook her lightly, ”Rey, Finn and I need you, c’mon, please wake up.”

After a few more seconds of pleading, she moaned quietly and her eyes fluttered open. I exhaled in relief, she quickly sat up and looked around,

“Are you alright? Where’s Finn?”

“I’m okay, but Finn’s in trouble, we’ve gotta go.” I replied, standing up and pulling her with me.

She looked down at my other hand and saw the deactivated lightsaber, “Y/n, you’re a-“

“Yeah, we’ll talk about it later,” I rushed, barely having finished my sentence when we heard Finn’s scream.

We ran through the forest until we were closer to Ben, his back was turned to us. Finn lay face down in the snow and I could see Poe’s jacket ripped up the back. I spotted something in the distance, the handle of Uncle Luke’s saber was sticking out of a pile of snow. In sync, mine and Ben’s hands went forwards to summon it but it didn’t budge. I strained a little harder, there was no way I was going to let Ben take it. It finally began to wiggle before flying through the air towards me...

And landing in Rey’s outstretched hand.

I dropped my arm and gaped at her, she looked equally surprised as she stared at the weapon. My shock turned to happiness as we looked to one another, I nodded to let her know it was okay she’d been the one to catch it. She returned the gesture and just like on Jakku and on the freighter, we were a team. Ben looked more surprised and confused than both of us combined. Rey gripped the lightsaber with both hands, raising her arms up and I did the same. Ben activated and spun his expertly, we activated ours, and it became a blur after that.

We charged toward him, our blades fitting awkwardly together as we danced through the forest. Rey was a bit more aggressive in her fighting, accidentally cutting through a few trees as she swung at Ben. It was shocking at how good she was considering she’d never used one, to my knowledge. We moved backwards as Ben attacked both of us, stumbling through a thin path surrounded with rock formations. When there was a brief second where Ben was determining his next move, Rey and I leapt onto the rocks and ran as he swung wildly at them. I jumped off when they reached their end while Rey somersaulted off as if it was as natural as walking. She was undeniably skilled and when we survived this, she and I would be having a long talk.

Rey cut through a tree (no doubt one we’d probably slammed through earlier in the Falcon) to distract Ben and we continued running. I could sense Ben’s frustration towards Rey, I didn’t know if he’d interrogated her or not but there was something strange between them. I struck Ben’s blade and shoved him backwards, only angering him further. He spun the weapon in his hand before coming at me, Rey was there to block his aim. As we moved deeper into the forest, I caught a glimpse of what was behind us. The base’s destruction was now reaching the surrounding land and the planet itself was beginning to crumble. Anxiety began to course through me as I realized that we may not be getting off the planet.

Ben slammed his blade against ours and backed us up until we reached the edge of a now cracked piece of earth. The rest was falling into the core of the planet. Ben had both me and Rey pinned, one wrong move and our lives would come to an end. We both groaned as we pushed against the the crackling red saber, Ben moved his face closer to Rey’s,

“You need a teacher,” he stated loudly over the sounds our blades were making, “I can show you the ways of the Force.” Rey’s face changed to confusion, “The Force?” “Rey, don’t listen to him,” I grunted, “He’ll lead you to the Dark Side.”

She looked between the two of us and closed her eyes, concentrating on something. I was perplexed only momentarily until I realized that was probably how I looked when I meditated. I closed my own eyes and reached out to her through the Force, trying to pull her from going down Ben’s path.

She reached back out and met me with no hesitations.

We both opened our eyes and both ducked away from Ben. He turned to meet us and we both began striking his blade continuously, he was trying to calculate his next move but it wasn’t much use. He was outnumbered and outmatched, his hopes of winning were extremely slim. Rey struck and sliced off a piece of Ben’s clothing, before I jabbed him in the shoulder causing him to groan. He began walking backwards away from us, we didn’t let up as our blades crashed into each other’s again. I kicked him in the chest and he fell against the snow, Rey and I stood waiting for him to either stay down or try again. He moaned as he stood up and lunged towards Rey, leaving me surprisingly out of his attack. He grabbed ahold of Rey’s wrist and she cried out, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. Rey forced Ben’s red blade into the snow and I took the opportunity to give Rey some insurance. I spun around and slammed my blade against Ben’s, making it almost impossible for him to even have a shot at hitting her. He growled in frustration just before Rey overpowered him and slammed her saber down against the hilt of his. It sliced through and the red disappeared, he was without a weapon. I backed away and Rey swung upwards, hitting Ben in his face and chest. My heart stopped as I waited for him to rise, Rey stood with her blade ready to strike again if he did get up. He looked up to us to reveal an ugly bloody gash across the right side of his face. Out of reflex, I almost went and knelt down next to him to help him. His dark eyes bore into both of us, but settled on mine, “I will find you, wherever in the galaxy your precious base is hidden, and I will kill you and put an end to your pathetic Resistance.”

I fought back my tears at the sight of him, he may have looked like my brother but Ben Solo would never do or say what he had. I’d held out hope for years that I could bring him back, I’d promised my mother I’d try…But it was more than apparent that Ben had made his choice a long time ago.

“Then I guess you were right all those years ago,” I replied, “My brother really is dead.” As we held eye contact, the earth began to crack and it split the three of us apart. Me and Rey on one half and Kylo on the other, injured and defenseless. I took one last look at him, committing the image to my memory before turning to Rey,

“Finn.” We deactivated our sabers and ran off into our half of the forest. It didn’t take us long to retrace our steps and find where our friend still lay. Rey cried out his name before we rolled him over, specks of ice decorating his face. We both began to weep over his body, it was unlikely that he would survive an injury this extreme. Then again, it didn’t matter. We had no way off of the planet. Rey rested her head on Finn’s chest and I put a hand on her back, feeling tremendous guilt for having dragged them into this.

We were going to die at any moment now, my mother would lose both her daughter and husband on the same day she was reunited with them. I’d never see Poe again, never get to hold him, kiss him, love him when I’d just been given the chance. As I cried, Rey took my hand and squeezed tight, reminding me that I wasn’t alone. She was with me and I’d never been more thankful for her.

Just then, I heard a familiar set of thrusters and bright white lights washed over us. I looked up from Finn’s still form to see the most beautiful sight I could have seen in that moment.

The Falcon in all her glory with Chewie in the cockpit.

I joyfully sobbed and looked to Rey as Chewie landed near us. We couldn’t lift Finn between the two of us so we waited impatiently for the Wookie to exit the ship. He ran out and lifted Finn carefully in his arms, Rey grabbed the blasters that had been dropped while I handled the lightsabers. We rushed onboard and I began calling orders out,

“Rey, you stay with Finn,” I said, she didn’t need to be told twice, “Chewie, you fly and I’ll co-pilot.” Me and Chewie ran to the cockpit ad began frantically flipping switches and adjusting controls. The earth began to crumble beneath us and we took off at just the right time, one second later and we would have fallen in. We flew through the destruction and I had to bite back the tears at the thought of never getting to bury my father. His body in a matter of seconds would cease to exist, just like the planet. I was leaving him there in a sense and it crushed me.

I looked at our radar, “I’m picking up X-Wings behind us, job’s done. Now let’s go home.” Chewie growled his approval and sent us safely hurdling through lightspeed. It was then, and only then, did I close the door the cockpit and fall apart. My knees hit the ground and I sobbed, Chewie knelt down and wrapped his arms around me. The two of us sat there crying into one another, mourning my father in a way that only a few in the galaxy would understand.

A/N: This is the chapter that changes the entire story, it sets a lot of things in motion too. Things that will be explained and explored in later chapters. GAH I’m so excited!! Also, every chapter going forward will have Poe in it. Hope you liked it! Let me know if you’d like to be added to the taglist.

Taglist: @m1rkw00dpr1ncess @springfox04 @constantdisgrace @holybatflapexpert @seninjakitey @tammythompson-singslikea-muppet @leilei-draws @eternal-fandoms @dream-alittlebiggerdarling @imaginecrushes @eternallyvenus @thescarletknight2014 @simplybarnes @captain-america5 @breyasficletblog @caseymcflurry @stumbleonmywords @april-14-blog @i-ievu @ultrunning @desperatelytryingtosavemyself @caswinchester2000

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fontofmercy-archived2 · 4 years

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TROS spat in the face of every single abused child who was looking to this fairytale for hope. The sequel trilogy wasn’t about a farm boy looking for adventure or even an abused child falling to villainy, it was about three abused children from the different class systems all rising out of trauma and dysfunction. This was our fairytale, our story, and JJ Abrams perverted it into abuse apologist propaganda in a pathetically desperate attempt to appease the most hateful groups of fans who never understood or appreciated the story to begin with (which is why the story had to be butchered in order to appease them).

1.) Rey

Rey’s parents selling her for profit into slavery was portrayed as a good, loving thing. Child trafficking was literally portrayed as excusable, and even loving, in this children’s film. Just let that sink in for a second.

What is the message there? If your parents did something horrible that caused you years of trauma and torment, you should just not lose faith in them because they may have had a good reason (even if you have no evidence of that). Maybe a space wizard who has been dead for decades forced them to traffic you. This scene makes me want to vomit. This is how a children’s fairytale portrayed parents who sell their children into trafficking:

There is no excuse for this. Rey’s parentage was solved. Her identity crisis was over. This wasn’t needed except to force this abuse apologist message. Oh, and of course to feed the sexist fanboys a bit of eugenics to make them stop whining about how a woman could possibly be important and powerful.

TLJ was about Rey discovering her identity and letting go of her unhealthy, irrational dependency on parents who she never knew, who sold her to an abuser and left her to half-starve alone in a desert. TROS decided to give her a new identity crisis out of literally nowhere just so they could erase all that “You are not your parents, even if your parents don’t love you and/or aren’t special, you are still special and still deserving of love. You can find belonging ahead of you.” stuff with dynastic “Actually, your blood family does entirely define your identity and you should always assume they’re right even when all evidence points otherwise, just ignore your own trauma and blame it on a dead space wizard.”

The whole Rey Palpatine thing left a very bad taste in my mouth. Not just because it’s fucking stupid and something Reddit would write, but because Rey was horrible in TROS. She acted like she was possessed by Palpatine, she stabbed Ben (who she cares for and always had compassion for) to kill while he was distracted. She suddenly acted like she didn’t care about anyone around her. She just overall acted unrecognizable from the warm, loving, empathetic woman we saw in TFA and TLJ. The message here is clearly that because she has this “bad blood”, Rey can’t have an identity for herself. The only thing that saves her is taking on the identity of the good guys, she never finds her own. All the traits she’s had up until now don’t matter, who she actually is doesn’t matter. All that matters is what man’s blood runs through her veins. All Rey is is someone’s granddaughter, because if she wasn’t, then she’d really be nobody.

And thus, JJ Abrams decided that “Anyone can be special, even nobodies. Your worth is not defined by your class or your background.” was a stupid message and instead it should be pure eugenic “You’re only special if you have important people blood/name. Your identity is entirely your (male) family, not your own. No silly woman could have power of her own!”

Rey taking on the name of Skywalker is an utterly shallow attempt to fix the fact that they took every bit of Rey’s real identity from her, took half her soul (Ben is her dyad, two that are one), and then left her alone on a desert planet as if to say that her “true self” is the abused child she once was and that she can’t actually escape that. The moral of this fairytale was “You don’t need friends or love, as long as you have a glow stick (material possessions) and a super duper special name that makes you important (which you weren’t before, you were nobody).”

Not to mention that Rey basically named herself after Luke, no one else she knew actually used that name. And Luke didn’t do anything to deserve that, he rejected her at every single opportunity and only did the bare minimum to help her after being berated into it. Han was her surrogate father and the first person to offer her a life outside of Jakku. Leia was her loving mentor and pseudo-mother. Ben was the love of her life who has always been there for her when she needed someone to confide it, someone to see her true self and tell her she wasn’t alone. Luke was nothing but some cranky old guy who made her feel awful about herself and never accepted her (not to mention telling her she was inherently dangerous and also trying to murder her soulmate when he was a child which the real Rey was furious about).

2.) Finn

Finn’s character has not been given much in terms of development. For the most part, he’s been reduced to “Rey’s friend” and then “Finn’s friend”, with a little moment in there where he got to be with Rose and have his own identity but TROS of course decided to reward racist bullies and cut out Rose instead of giving the rest of the fans a satisfying story.

In TROS though, the one thing that Finn actually did that was heroic by himself, his character defining moment of turning from The First Order, was credited to the force and described like it wasn’t a choice at all. Which brings up a lot of questions and, as Han would say, “That’s not how the force works!”. It was so entirely unneeded to take that from Finn, but they gave up all of Rose’s potential screentime to do it.

There’s also the moment when Poe, our alleged hero, so hilariously (i.e callously) compares himself being a criminal to Rey being a scavenger and Finn being a stormtrooper. Completely ignoring the fact that they had no choice in that, as if their trauma doesn’t matter at all. It’s a small moment, but it was very insensitive and highlights how much the writers Did Not Care or even understand their main characters’ experiences.

3.) Ben

I don’t even know where to start with Ben Solo. His ending was the one that broke me as a person, I had so many hysterical sobbing fits over it that my loved ones were actually getting tired of it and it genuinely put me in a really bad place with my depression that I’m only just not getting out of.

Ben Solo’s story in TFA and TLJ was abuse victim’s epic, it was the story of a boy who was tortured and groomed from the time he was in his mother’s womb. A man who never knew a life without abuse. Ben Solo was described as a pure beam of light in his mother’s womb who was ensnared and tainted by a predatory force bigger and stronger than himself that he could not escape.

The feeling of being tainted and corrupted is common in abuse victims, and the fact that TROS told every single abused child out there “Yes, you really are tainted and corrupted. You do deserve to die before experiencing more than a moment of happiness and safety.” is something that I’ve yet to get over. It still infuriates me, it still breaks my heart. Ben’s entire arc up until this point has been about how he is still worthy of love.

And no, this isn’t me woobifying; it’s in the text of the films and the canon novels that Ben worked for his redemption, that he earned it. Ben fought Snoke from the time he was a child, but Ben was only a child and Snoke was too powerful, too relentless in his cruelty for him to withstand. The one and only person in the entire galaxy who had the training and the knowledge to protect Ben was his uncle, who chose to try to murder him in his sleep instead of protecting him. Ben was left with nowhere to turn except to his abuser. And even then, we see him struggle every single day to try and force himself to be this evil person that he never was. Ben was light itself who was convinced he was darkness through abuse and manipulation.

Then, when Ben found the first person who he could feel and connect with through the force, even though Snoke and Luke had abused and betrayed him - Ben still took the chance to reach out to Rey and be vulnerable with her. While interrogating an enemy, he took off his mask and revealed himself (something we only see him to for his father and when Snoke forces him to maliciously). In the middle of a war, under the thumb of the monster who has tortured him since forever, Ben was able hold Rey’s hand and tell her she wasn’t alone. He was still able to be kind. And because of that kindness, that connection, Ben found the courage to finally destroy his abuser and free himself.

Ben freed himself, and he did it out of compassion for and a need to protect Rey, not out of wrath or vengeance. If Ben were truly a creature of wrath, he would have killed Snoke before, but it was only when he had to see and hear and feel his soulmate be tortured by his own abuser that he found that courage. And yes, he did take Snoke’s place at first because that was the only way he knew how to protect himself. In his experience, people without power get hurt and that’s it. But even then, Ben was able to muster yet more strength to shed the armor that was Kylo Ren and stand with Rey unarmored against the very thing that has abused and tortured him since before he was born.

That took so much bravery and love and selflessness for Ben to stand there as himself, ready to fight his abuse and trauma head-on as Ben Solo. For him to admit he was hurt for the first time in the series. For him to crawl up a cliff with a badly broken leg out of love. For him to willingly give his very life force out of pure love. All of these things are incredible for Ben to have been able to do after all he had been through, these are more than deserving of reward. But TROS punished Ben for doing everything right, they proved that abusers always win in the end. Ben was going to survive until the last few edits. Everything we see was literally leading up to him surviving. This was Ben’s redemption, this was supposed to be him fighting for his new beginning and taking his first steps into the happiness and safety he earned, and should have had as a child, not a pointless struggle before succumbing to death:

But TROS told us, told traumatized and neurodivergent children who saw themselves in Ben, that it wasn’t good enough. That love isn’t good enough. That doing the right thing deserves to be punished. That children tainted by violence and abuse and darkness don’t deserve love and healing even when they earn redemption, even when they do everything in their power to do the right thing and be brave. The hopelessness of that is what broke me as a person. That is not what Star Wars is about. Star Wars is about redemption and love and hope; TROS was about cruelty covered up with a thin sheet of materialism and confused, poor storytelling.

#*sigh* glad i got that out holy shir #ben solo deserved to live #ben solo defense squad #ben solo #rey from nowhere #rey solo #the only acceptable names for her #reylo #pro reylo #anti tros #tros review #pairing: ben x rey #ch: ben solo #ch: rey from nowhere #ch: rey solo #sw: text #my meta

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eternalthenas · 4 years

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what bothers me the most about tros and what i’m most unable to accept is how jj managed to destroy and disrespect EVERY single character. even the ones who technically had “happy endings”🤡

ben - i feel like this one doesn’t even need to be said, but i’ll say it anyways. after years of emotional abuse from palpatine, it’s disheartening to see that jj gave no explanation as to why palpatine wanted ben (personal vendetta against the skywalkers i guess??) when it semed like he only needed rey AND that ben never really triumphed over palpatine in any way. it hurts to know that leia straight up had a vision about her son’s death but that she still seemingly gave up on him despite knowing that he was struggling and that she sent him off to train to be jedi with a luke, when apparently she could’ve done that herself. it’s disheartening that luke who believed even vader could be turned back to the light also gave up on his nephew, when he was just a boy no less. it’s disheartening that although he was the last skywalker (a fact only palpatine acknowledged!), none of his family nor his namesake reached out to help him. instead of telling the last skywalker to rise, they ignored him (as they had apparently done his whole life) in favor of a palpatine. ok. even though as the last skywalker, he really should’ve been the one to have the final kill against palpatine since it was HIS family that palpatine destroyed, he doesn’t. he’s motionless in a pit for the whole final battle. ok. that will never not leave a bad taste in my mouth. his whole family (except for han apparently i love him) gave up on him and clearly so did the writers. as a fan of the skywalkers and their story, this isn’t the ending i wanted for them. especially when luke and leia and han had given their lives to see him turn to the light. and for what? so he could be used as a plot device to conveniently bring rey back to life and then promptly die (even though they’re a force dryad and, according to jj’s own fucking canon, supposedly one) without any fanfare, emotional reaction whatsoever, or later mention? wtf? it’s disrespectful not only to ben solo, who is easily the best character in the sequel trilogy and one of the best characters in ALL of star wars, but it’s disrespectful to the entire skywalker line!! (and to adam driver, who deserved so much better than this shit. go get that oscar)

rey - by making her a palpatine, jj completely disregarded her arc. whatever your opinions about rey nobody, once they went with it, they never should’ve retconned it and turned her into a legacy character in the final film. it felt cheap. in my theater, there was no cheering about this reveal. because jj had never properly set it up and he didn’t even bother to reveal it an impactful way. but what’s most annoying about rey suddenly being a legacy character is that it completely disregards the fact that she was powerful on her OWN, without any famous blood making her that way. furthermore, by turning her into the chosen one and giving her the entire skywalker legacy (which felt like a slap in the face to the skywalkers imo), she did turn into a mary sue, one of the biggest complaints about her since day 1. she was overpowered, morally perfect, and never faced any failure. i struggled to root for her as the “hero” because i felt everything was handed to her on a silver platter. so not only did jj turn her into a mary sue and take her power away from her by turning her into a legacy, but he also destroyed the fact that her whole arc had been “seeking belonging” and a family. rather than having her final scenes be with her new found family, she ends the movie with her canon soulmate dead and no one but a droid by her side on a desert planet of all places. to add further insult to injury, she also disregards her family name even though they supposedly loved her and sacrificed themselves for her (despite the fact that they sold her but whatever) in favor of a last name of a guy she had barely known. she had more emotional connection to han or leia, but she didn’t take their last name. she took luke’s, the guy who had refused to teach her and who she had come to view in a more negative light towards the end of tlj. in this house i will not EVER be calling her rey sky- i can’t even say it🤢

finn - in all honestly, they screwed finn’s character arc in episode 1 when jj turned him into a lovesick sidekick who served as comedic relief. as a deserted stormtrooper, he could’ve had the most interesting storylines. and he should have. but apparently the writers forgot about him. although they mention his past BRIEFLY, it’s paid no real weight or attention. instead, he spends the whole movie once again trying to (possibly) confess his feeling for rey. and for what? probably just to bait finnrey fans and prove the character’s heterosexuality bc it goes absolutely nowhere. although we find out he’s force sensitive, that too is glossed over and has no lasting effect. he’s also made co general, which okay cool, but then he does nothing?? so while finn could have and should have been a main character with an interesting storyline, they turn him into your average run of the mill action hero with an occasional quip. john boyega, sweetie, i’m so sorry (but i guess that’s kind of what he wanted since he hated tlj, the only movie where he actually had a main role with any character growth?? idk)

poe - it’s once again evident that they originally intended to kill off poe bc he has no arc whatsoever. he gets a little backstory as a drug smuggler now ig, which really came out of left field considering the already established canon with his past as a pilot. he’s more of the same in this movie, except more unlikable than usual (imo). he’s still stubborn, occasionally funny, but mostly he just bickers with rey, which isn’t funny, at all necessary, and doesn’t add anything to the “trio’s” dynamic. he’s at his best when he’s with finn but then, of course, jj has to remind us of how straight he is every single scene so. another character like finn who could have been great, but with the lazy writing, he has no arc, no backstory, no character growth, so he’s just mediocrity personified and just kind of there.

zorii & jannah - both could’ve been awesome. both are just there for a brief introduction and to help the heroes with maybe one thing and that’s it. both deserved better.

the skywalkers - yeah jj really said a big fuck you to luke, leia, and anakin most of all. the WORST part of tros is the fact that it basically makes the previous six episodes useless. anakin’s redemption arc? what does it matter now? he didn’t successfully bring balance to the force. he didn’t successfully kill palpatine. and now his entire bloodline is dead. ok cool😎 thank you jj!!!! what a hopeful end to the skywalker saga!!!! i love seeing that anakin failed and wasn’t REALLY the chosen one. i love that luke and leia gave their legacy to a descendant of the guy who tried to tear apart and terrorized their family. that’s really nice. i love that anakin NEVER reached out to help his grandson who struggled with the dark just like he did. but that he came in just in time to tell palp’s granddaughter to rise😍 really hopeful, lovely ending. thanks again jj! thanks for making leia seem like a bad mother who sees visions about her son but just throws in the towel and doesn’t really try to help him?? wtf??? not my princess leia. also tros luke? truly the worst luke. i really have no other words, i’m just disappointed. jj let me down in every single way possible and ones i didn’t even realize he could.

palpatine - jj also managed to ruin the best star wars villain, a feat i didn’t even think possible. palpatine had always seemed scary to me because of his inhuman qualities. but in this one, he’s back with no explanation whatsoever. he just is. he somehow managed to survive (ok🙄) and furthermore he had a kid. what in the fuck? jj clearly read harry potter and the cursed child, but he clearly also forgot to read the reviews. NOBODY LIKES IT WHEN THE PREVIOUSLY UNTOUCHABLE/SCARY VILLAIN HAS A KID OUT OF NOWHERE. NOBODY. i seriously spent the entire movie wondering who the heck would sleep with him? that’s it. he didn’t seem menacing or at all like a threat. this movie genuinely had no stakes whatsoever (that’s why ben’s death feels so out of left field bc literally for what?! but i digress) also the final “fight” where rey kills him??? very lame. he supposedly survived all those years to be taken out like that?? no thank you, i’d like a refund.

in conclusion, thank you to jj for ruining my favorite franchise by killing off every last one of my favorite characters, destroying the skywalker legacy (& killing them off), ruining seriously every character, and leaving me with despair!!! while i’ll continue to watch star wars without including episode 9, it sucks that some of my joy is zapped from my favorite series. because this is how future generations will know star wars. with this shitty ending. and any future movies will have this canon. and that really fricking sucks. thanks, i hate it.

anyways feel free to message if you’re also in the depths of despair about how this all ended!! bc the more i think about it, the sadder/angrier i get.

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afirewiel · 4 years

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“Ben Solo Deserved to Die Because...”

“...he killed his father.”

Yes, and look at what that act did to him. As Snoke says in TLJ, killing Han “split your spirit to the bone.” It physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually weakened Kylo. It made him even more unstable then he already was. It didn’t cement him to the Dark Side as he had hoped it would. It only tore him more apart. And he knows it. He knows he was wrong to kill Han. In TLJ when talking through the force bond, Rey calls him a monster. What’s his response? “Yes, I am.” Without sarcasm. He means it. He knows he’s a monster.

And you can’t tell me that after watching that scene with Ben and Han in TROS that he does not regret that act more than anything. The way he looks at Han. The way he calls him Dad. He’s about to try and apologize. You can see it in his eyes. And Han forgives him! Now before you say that Han is just a memory (”so of course he’d imagine Han forgiving him!”), Han would forgive him and you know it! Even in TFA after Kylo stabbed him, you can see it in Han’s face. He’s not angry. He still reaches out to try and touch his son’s face.

Has any other movie villain shown this negative a reaction to taking a life? Vader sure doesn’t. He kills Obi-Wan (who btw, is the closest thing Anakin Skywalker had to a father. He said so in AoC) and just walks away. He isn’t weakened nor does he ever show any remorse for doing so.

“...he killed billions of people.”

Actually, he didn’t. In the TFA novelization, it’s revealed that Kylo had nothing (and wanted nothing) to do with Star Killer Base. He didn’t design the weapon or oversee it’s construction. His only association with it was that he was stationed there on Snoke’s orders. Snoke and Hux were the ones responsible. Kylo even tried to stop them from using it. You know that part in the movie when Snoke gives Hux the order to fire the weapon and Kylo says “I can still get what we need from the girl”? That wasn’t a “And I can still get what we need from the girl. Go ahead and fire!” It was a “But I can still get what we need from the girl! We don’t have to do this!” Kylo Ren did not fire the weapon that destroyed those planets, nor did he even what it fired. Kylo Ren may have done some bad things, but murdering billions is not one of them. Funny how he’s the one who’s hated for that even though Hux who is responsible is still loved.

“...he ordered the deaths of the villagers on Jakku!”

True. He did, but like with Han, I believe it is an act that he didn’t entirely enjoy or feel comfortable with. Why else would he let Finn go when he clearly felt that Finn hadn’t fired his weapon as ordered? He could have had Finn shot for disobeying a direct order then and there, but he never said a word about it, letting Finn go.

“...he murdered Luke’s other students!”

Like with Star Killer Base, this is not true. In the comics released shortly before the movie, it’s revealed that the other students believe Ben had killed Luke. They followed him and attacked him, forcing him to fight them. It wasn’t murder. It was self-defense.

“...he tortured Poe and Rey!”

He mind probed them for information. That is not the same thing as physical torture (and Rey mind probed him right back!). Poe may have been tortured by the Stormtroopers to try and get information out of him, but Kylo himself never laid a finger on him. And as others have said time and time again, they were enemies on opposite sides of a war! Torture is, unfortunately, a part of that. And Vader tortured Han and Leia in Empire, remember? Not for information, but simply to get Luke to Bespan. “They didn’t even ask me any questions,” Han says. Also you can’t tell me that the Rebellion in OT and the Resistance in ST never tortured anyone for information.

“...he only killed Snoke because he wanted to become Supreme Leader!”

False. He killed Snoke because Snoke was hurting Rey and wanted him (Kylo) to kill her. He was protecting her. The thought of taking Snoke’s place as Supreme Leader didn’t happen until after Snoke was already dead. This has been confirmed by not only the TLJ novelization but by Rian Johnson and Adam Driver.

“...he lied to Hux and told him Rey had killed Snoke.”

Yeah, what else was he supposed to do? If he told the truth the entire FO would have turned on him and while he might be powerful, he certainly wouldn’t have been able to take on the entire FO by himself. It was a survival tactic. Nothing more.

“...he wanted to kill Luke.”

Of course he did! He believed Luke had tried to kill him. Can you blame him for wanting Luke dead? As for as he knew, Luke had betrayed him first.

“...he’s just another white boy villain/Vader wannabe.”

He is so much more than that. In the TFA novelization, it’s revealed that Snoke had been speaking into Ben Solo’s mind since infancy. INFANCY! Just try and image that. What’s more helpless and defenseless than a baby? Poor baby Ben was being manipulated before he could even talk! And Leia knew it was happening. Which is why she was afraid he’d turn to the Dark Side and sent him to train with Luke. It’s a wonder he retained any sanity at all let alone managed to go 16 years before giving into the Dark Side (which we know he never completely did). Personally, I think Luke’s attempt to kill him is what pushed him over the edge. Imagine everyone you love expecting you to turn out bad. That’s what Ben went through! Other novels and comics also show how Snoke not only manipulated young Ben Solo, but also physical abused him.

Kylo Ren was not just some one sided villain, but a complex, emotionally damaged, 3D character. He was a victim of abuse, who, after years from struggle, finally managed to find his way back to the light.

#star wars #tfa #tlj #tros #ben solo #kylo ren #ben solo defense squad #spoilers

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padmeskywalkers · 4 years

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Someone told me I was dumb for calling out Lucasfilm on their hypocrisy re: John because Finn's treatment is "not a real issue" and I was like, and that disproves my point how? They're willing to do the bare minimum and agree with him that he doesn't deserve to be murdered, but they won't treat his character with respect?

I completely agree! lucasfilm completely faked him out. they told him he was the new lead of star wars, all the promotional materials hinted that he was the jedi of the trilogy and that this was going to be his story. tfa set up him and rey to be co-leads. and then they took his lightsaber away, slashed his back open, and let the ‘real’ star of the trilogy take the lead.

tlj turned his character into a comic relief side character, refused to give him an actual arc and completely sidelined him. for tros, it’s clear that material with finn was deleted - john was clearly excited going into it, and told fans we were going to get to explore finn’s backstory and family, and that he had a major role in the film. once he’d seen the finished product, it was clear that he was disappointed and that most of his material had been cut.

to make matters worse, lucasfilm has never once openly stood with him or kelly or any of the other cast who were being harassed. daisy was bullied off instagram for defending and being friends with john, kelly had horrific racial and sexist slurs thrown at her and was similarly forced off of social media, and john has faced nothing but hatred since that first shot in the first trailer of him pulling a stormtrooper mask off. and lucasfilm has never once come out and told people to stop being racist and stop harassing their cast.

they’ve gone so far as to artificially lighten his skin in promotional materials, to make him one of the smallest people on a poster despite originally being positioned as the lead of the trilogy, and even to completely erase him from posters.

the fact that they think they can post an instagram picture and it will erase all the harm they’ve done to his career and to him as a person is absurd. they’ve never stood with him when it mattered, and they’re only doing it now because they know the world is watching and they’ll be called out if they don’t at least address what he’s doing.

it’s a weak and ultimately meaningless statement, and disney and lucasfilm need to do a lot more than that to make up for what they did with finn’s character and john as an actor.

#john boyega #sw cast #star wars #this got really long but I've been frustrated ever since I saw their post #because what they did isn't enough #and it will never be enough.#lucasfilm #disney

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navek15 · 4 years

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So in-between writing fanfiction, working on my novel, work, the upcoming online semester, keeping the house clean, and getting my ass repeating handed to me in Dark Souls: Remastered and Dark Souls III, my increasing disdain for how terrible, unimaginative, and terribly imaginative some ‘fans’ of particular properties can be. And it’s not just from one particular instance, it’s from several occurrences over the years.

Yesterday, I was watching Maj0r Lee’s video reaction to terrible reviews of Final Fantasy 7: Remake. Side note, I’ve respected ML for not being afraid to speak his mind, no matter how much it goes against the nerd fan hivemind. And one thing that quickly got on his and my nerves about the reviews was how repetitive they were.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR-1NTCwLr8

“Tetsuya Nomura pulled a Kingdom Hearts and ruined the great story of the original FF7.”

“Nomura and friends turned FF7 into Kingdom Hearts-tier garbage.”

“I was going to give FF7: Remake a ten out of ten until that terribly ending turned it into a zero.”

Tetsuya Nomura this, Kingdom Hearts that, something something the original story was basically the bible. The same points repeated over and over again. It’s like listening to all the same complaints about the Last Jedi. I’d probably take those complaints seriously if it didn’t feel like the same arguments were being copy-pasted over and over because that generates more clicks on YouTube.

If I sound a bit salty, it might be because my favorite video game franchise (BTW, I would never say KH is flawless) is being used as a go-to example of bad writing. This must be how the Call of Duty fans feel all the time.

But there was one particular ‘review’ that pissed me off to no end;

“The more and more I think about it, I feel like Nomura and co. have little to no respect for the fans that have given their work this love, and perhaps even harbour some contempt for them wanting to to see their childhood imagination and memories of the story realised as they deserve to be.

There is a certain arrogance to twisting this world and story to their own whim, as if to say that “this is our world, our characters, what you fans think means nothing to us, we can do what we want with them and you can get fucked if you disagree”.”

You know what this reminds me of? Those laughable Anti-Horikoshi blogs that use the trans flag as their background to supposedly ‘protect’ the female characters of My Hero Academia from their ‘disgusting’ creator. Those lunatics that posted themselves burning their copies of Tokyo Ghoul because the main character banged his female love interest and called Ishida a homophobe. Or the the worst episode of South Park where Trey Parker and Matt Stone showed their disapproval of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by having Indy getting horrifically sodomized by George Lucas and Steven Spielburg.

This might be hard for some idiots to understand, so let me spell it out for you; YOU DO NOT OWN A STORY OR CHARACTERS JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE A “FAN”!

In the end, writers have their own ideas for how storylines, character progression, and character relationships will turn out. If all creators ever did was pander to the fickle desires of the most rabid ‘fans’, all media would be nothing but self-referential bullshit. Hell, we already example how bad this would be. It’s called ‘How the Last Jedi should’ve ended!’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCB8DUGpYQQ

While this video was clearly made to take the piss out of TLJ, it ironically demonstrates my fucking point! This is also why I am 100% certain that we’re never getting a Dark Souls/Bloodborne movie or tv show. Because any interpretation or story that dares to go against the most poorly thought out fan theories will get ripped apart by absolute lunatics with nothing better to do with their time.

And another thing, can we stop treating stories like they’re fucking scripture?! There’s a reason that the ‘Stations of the Canon’ trope is derided by many authors. I can probably name all the Naruto fanfics that aren’t just the same as the original story just with slightly altered dialogue and everyone wearing slightly-different clothing. And I was guilty of this too, until I realized how much more fun it was to go completely off the rails.

Not the mention that this kind of thinking leads to people holding stories to such a ridiculous degree that any sequel or retelling that fails to live up to those unreasonable expectations will get treated like a personal attack and a dumpster fire not even worthy to roast expired marshmallows over.

I’m not saying you should never criticize a story, game or comic for its actual flaws, but don’t try to make it into a sob story like ‘How dare the creator or owners of this story like go about it what they think is the best! These guys are worse than HITLER!’ Hate to break to ya, but no ones goes into a story or long-running franchise to purposely piss off the fans. They’re doing it because they got a story to tell...or to make money. Or both.

And try to come up with your own critiques instead of just copy and pasting the same arguments over and over again.

“Fairy Tail is terrible because all the girls have big tits and skimpy outfits.”

“I’ve heard all that before. Do you have any other complaints?”

“No, but that’s what everyone else is whining about.”

“Well then, piss off and come back when you actually form your own goddamn opinion.”

And I’m not saying that if your problem if a story is the same as someone else’s, then it's invalid. But at least try to say it in a way that doesn’t come across as just copying what the guy before ya said.

One last ramble before I go back to writing and getting attacked by video game monsters; can we stop with all the hyperbole? There are only so many times I can hear the phrase, “This is the worst thing ever” before it loses all meaning. Yes, I’m sure the newest Call of Duty game is worse than Santa Claus Saves the World. That the newest Star Wars movie is worse than A Serbian Film. Or that Black Clover is worse than Eiken.

And that argument is especially soured when the phrase ‘raped my childhood’ eventually rears its ugly head. It was outdated and terribly tasteless when Doug Walker reviewed Batman and Robin, and it’s gotten more disgusting and childish as a phrase over time.

Anyway, that’s my delusional rambling done for the day. Hope you all are safe and comfortable. Have a nice day!

#fandumb #dark souls #dark souls III #my hero academia #tokyo ghoul #star wars: the last jedi #south park #fairy tail #comics #anime #video games #rant

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proserpineisback · 4 years

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TROS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#tros #reylo #star wars #sw tros #the rise of skywalker #ben solo #kylo ren #rey skywalker #tros spoilers #lucasfilm

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lyledebeast · 4 years

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First Order Victims and Resistance Compassion

Isn’t it fun that Finn and General Hux both betray the First Order by helping Resistance heroes escape? But here, apparently, the similarities end. For Finn, this choice begins his journey to becoming a Resistance hero himself. Hux dies for it. A superficial reading of The Rise of Skywalker completely justifies this. Hux and Finn are such different characters that their reasons for doing exactly the same thing must be completely different. Hux’s motives must be petty and selfish because he’s the villain and Finn’s must be as lofty as he says they are because he’s fundamentally heroic. And if that’s not enough, Finn’s indoctrination as a child solider makes him a victim of the FO, while Hux is one of the most powerful people in it. However, a closer look at the similarities between these characters reveals a deeper, messier difference that presents the Resistance in a much less flattering light.

The similarity from which all others spring is that both Finn and Hux are, in some sense, products of the FO. Finn presents his time there as a source of nothing but trauma and horror, but in TLJ, he turns out to be one of the best fighters the Resistance has. Where did that come from? Not the Resistance. He is able to defeat Captain Phasma, the best fighter the FO has, because she’s the one who trained him. Which isn’t to say that this is not also a case of a victim killing his abuser; the two are not mutually exclusive. It’s worth keeping in mind that she also trained the stormtroopers Finn kills. What makes him so different from them? He’s different from the others in his first scene of TFA because he refuses to fire on unarmed civilians, but the ones he kills later are firing on armed Resistance soldiers. The anonymity of stormtroopers makes it entirely possible that the ones he kills are as innocent of civilian deaths as himself. He is an ex-stormtrooper using the skills he was taught in the FO to kill stormtroopers, and he never really seems conflicted about that.

While the advantages the FO gives Hux are more obvious than those it gives Finn, the ways it disadvantages them both are not as different as it may seem. Hux has the privilege of individuality, but when that becomes a reason to blame him for the actions of others—like Phasma and Finn—the privilege is dubious indeed. It clearly does not protect him from being abused by the two Supreme Leaders he serves under. And yet Hux, unlike Finn, makes no attempt to take any advantage of the one opportunity afforded him to leave. He does not make taking him with them a condition of setting Finn, Poe, and Chewie free. He just does it and then asks Finn to shoot him so it will look like he was overpowered. There are a few possible reasons for this. Maybe Hux is simply so arrogant that he actually believes this ruse will work (considering that Hux’s death, like all his pain, is treated as comic relief, this is probably what the writers are going for). It could also be that he doesn’t trust the Resistance heroes to take him, and nothing they do suggests he’d be wrong. A final reason is that maybe Hux, like many abuse victims, cannot imagine a life for himself outside of this situation because the abuse has been so effective. Whatever his reasons for staying behind in imminent peril, Hux is trapped in the FO in a way that Finn never is.

Finn is not special among FO characters because he’s victim. Just about every member of this organization who has someone in power over them is a victim, and the stormtroopers are all victimized in exactly the same way as Finn. What does make him special is that he’s very lucky. First, his resistance to FO brainwashing stratagems—a randomly dispensed gift from The Force, it seems—makes it easy for him to join the capital-r Resistance when give the opportunity. It also makes it easy for the Resistance to accept him. Besides that, he’s lucky to have the greatest pilot in the Resistance dropped into his lap at the precise moment he needs a pilot, and that Poe is willing to help him before he even has to ask. That said, the Resistance benefits as much as Finn does. It gets to make use of his FO insights and skills without the commitment of deprograming him or any pesky conflict on his part about killing his former peers. Literally all Finn needs is a ride.

On the surface, yes, Finn is a hero and Hux is a villain. If we look beyond that, though, what saves Finn is that he is a model victim, the only kind of victim that appeals the Resistance. Even though he was taught to hate and want to destroy the New Republic, he’s actually never done anything the Resistance has to forgive. He’s compassionate towards Resistance allies but has no empathy for people who are still trapped in the situation from which he himself escaped. The only person from the FO that he encounters after his escape that he does not fight or kill, directly or indirectly, is someone who has already escaped without any help from him Finn isn’t responsible for this self-serving, stingy compassion from which he benefits, but he adapts to it very quickly. Considered in this light, the contrast between Finn and Hux underscores the idea that the only people who deserve help are the ones who have already been able to help themselves so much that they barely require any effort or accommodation from anyone else.

#armitatge hux #abuse #abuse victims #tros #i'm not talking about ben solo here For Reasons #that's a whole other post

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dgcatanisiri · 3 years

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I’ll stand by this and die on this hill.

Whatever merits The Last Jedi has - and before you start debating me, I’m not saying it doesn’t have them, just that this outweighs them - it fails as a part of the ongoing narrative. It may be a fine standalone film, but as movie two of the Sequel Trilogy, movie eight of the Skywalker Saga, it fails to connect itself to the rest of the story, existing more in isolation than in concert. Rian Johnson’s Star Wars is VERY different from JJ Abrams’ Star Wars, a clash that makes it all too clear that Rise of Skywalker - and the Sequel Trilogy in general - was doomed to fail from the moment it was decided NOT to maintain the same writer across it.

It shifts gears, taking moments that were played for drama in the previous film (or films) and playing them for laughs.

It drops plot paths, with Rian Johnson explicitly saying that he didn’t use the Knights of Ren because they “didn’t fit” the story he was telling. Or the fact that, if the movie is taking place shortly after TFA, then where is ANY mention of Starkiller, the massive superweapon and installation that the Resistance just blew up?

It demotes Finn, the character who was the lead male of the last film, to a “comedic” c-plot that ends up going in a cul-de-sac, one that even the film’s defenders have said could have been cut and nothing be lost. And, in particular, this is noticeable because the plot of TFA moved BECAUSE of Finn - without Finn, Poe doesn’t escape, Rey doesn’t get off Jakku, the Resistance doesn’t go to Starkiller and destroy it. TFA hinged on Finn. TLJ treats him like a vestigial limb it can’t sever.

(No, really, based on what TFA establishes, FINN is the counterbalance to Kylo Ren - Kylo is a scion of a powerful line of Force users, Finn didn’t even have a NAME until TFA began, Kylo is the face of the First Order, Finn was a faceless stormtrooper, which is why the moment he first takes off his helmet means so much, Kylo was raised by heroes of the Republic and turned to the First Order, Finn was raised by the First Order and turns his back on it... The thematic parallels between them are ALL FUCKING OVER TFA! But TLJ wants him to go away, and there’s no chance for him to rebuild that plot momentum in Rise of Skywalker.)

Also on the level of connection to the previous film... Why the HELL is a coma patient stuffed in a storage closet, rather than the medbay with doctors monitoring him? And he’s then repeatedly tazed by Rose, which is again played for laughs. Finn’s injuries are played as a joke.

With Finn’s demotion, it elevates Kylo Ren, the villain, an explicit parallel to neo-natsees (because the Empire ALWAYS had its roots in natsee imagery, and the First Order is explicitly drawing on those, just like neo-natsees), into the lead male position.

Rey ends up reduced to his prize - over the course of TFA, her interactions with him were, in order, him rendering her unconscious and kidnapping her, torturing her, killing her mentor (his own father), and grievously wounding Finn, the first person in her life who came back for her, which was part of her driving characterization in the previous film. Her motivations are reduced to proving to Luke that she won’t be like Kylo Ren, and then trying to get someone she has no motivation to genuinely care about to redeem himself.

That “redemption,” I say again, is being offered by her after, again, she was kidnapped and tortured by him, she watched him kill Han Solo, who she saw as a paternal figure herself, and he put Finn, someone she’d already come to care for and who was the first person in her life to come back for her, in a coma. What motivation is there for her to TRY to redeem him? And if you want to say “Force Bond,” then that means that something is forged between her and Kylo, without her consent, that makes her care for him, actively manipulating her mind, and this just... happens.

The whole “Rey’s parents” thing is also a problem because it is ignoring HER reaction - it’s all about subverting the audience’s expectations, without caring about how she as a character responds. She never needed her parents to be a Kenobi, a Jinn, a Skywalker, whoever. They didn’t need to be somebody to the audience, they just were people she needed. Even the idea that they were drunks... They were the drunks who gave birth to her, who left her behind, and she wanted just to know why.

And why should anyone even believe that Kylo Ren would know that they’re just nobodies when it’s been like three days since they even met - none of his informants could have chased down any leads to the point of determining this in that time, if he even WAS looking for them. So by the same measure of “how does he know this?” is the question of “why should she believe him?”

It does not explain Luke’s change of character in near enough detail - this is a character who refused to kill DARTH VADER, his father, a man he barely knew, only really knowing him as the great boogeyman of the Empire, and yet I’m supposed to believe that he would actively attempt a premeditated murder of his own nephew, who he would have known all of said nephew’s life, for what he MIGHT do? There NEEDED more of points B and C to connect points A and D here.

Also on the subject of Luke, in the last movie, it was explicit - Luke had vanished and left a map behind. Why would you leave a map to a place you intend to run away to and be forgotten and die?

This movie, indeed, SHRANK the galaxy far, far away to ludicrous levels - the Resistance is in the fringes of the New Republic, yet Canto Bight, a major casino resort hub of war profiteering, is a casual jump away? Also, if the Resistance fleet couldn’t jump there, how can a small ship like Finn and Rose’s do that? Doesn’t the fleet need every vehicle and every drop of fuel? Rey’s gone after Luke, to a planet forgotten by the rest of the galaxy, her training pretty clearly taking place over days, at least, if not more. And yet simultaneously, the ticking clock of the Resistance’s fuel running out happens, and she still manages to arrive in the midst of their escape? This timeline is a goddam mess.

Rian Johnson explicitly said that he wanted Holdo to be flirtatious with Poe. And told the costume designer NOT to dress her in the uniform befitting an admiral. Right there, you lose me on Holdo being in the right during the mutiny - we have an existential threat to the Resistance, and she’s dressed like she’s going for drinks with Senators and apparently supposed to be flirting with Poe.

And I’m giving this its own bullet point - they actively changed the language of the film to try and frame her as more in the right. She was redubbed after the fact to have different dialogue and tone with Poe, while leaving his side of the conversation alone, seemingly to portray him more as a hotheaded maverick when what we’re seeing is him responding to the existential threat they are facing. I HAVE to address this, because they changed what the characters are reacting to after the fact to push a narrative of Poe being wrong, when he WAS acting in the Resistance’s best interests throughout.

Because his demotion is crap - the Original Trilogy showed the X-Wings and similar snubfighters having independent hyperdrive, there was no reason to keep the fleet there for the sake of recovering them based on the text of the film and the established technology of the setting. Leia could have jumped the fleet and let them rendezvous later. Keeping the fleet there? That was her blunder, not Poe’s.

Meanwhile the dreadnaught? That was a MAJOR target - It had over 200,000 First Order troops. For a group on the fringe, LIKE THE FIRST ORDER WAS IN TFA, that’s a major loss of personnel and material. And that slow-moving target of the dreadnaught was the kind of target those bombers should have been designed for. And if they were really so valuable that they were all lost against the dreadnaught and it was a major blow to the Resistance, those bombers should have been scrapped for parts long before. So, based on what the First Order was originally established as in TFA, Poe did the right thing. His problem is that TLJ CHANGED what the First Order was.

And, again, with the existential threat of the First Order on their tails, Poe, one of the Resistance’s best pilots AND the guy who blew up Starkiller, should have been on the list of people who deserved to be in the know of the plan - if you’re worried about traitors (which Holdo never actually SAYS), he’s pretty clearly not working for them. So she’s holding over the fact that he lost people on a mission against him, which... I’m sorry, but what the fuck with that, EVERY fighter pilot mission we have seen in the films has led to losses.

And when he does find out the plan - the plan that he asks her, three times, in private, in public, and at gunpoint, to even just tell him EXISTS, not even the details of - he’s completely accepting of it. So the whole conflict exists because she doesn’t talk to anyone about it.

Because, before anyone brings up “she has no responsibility to tell an underling her ideas,” she may not, but there was a chance, right before the mutiny went through, for her to defuse the situation entirely, since, as we see, once he knows the plan, he’s willing to go along with it. And it’s not like Poe was acting alone - there were others in the mutiny, including Connix, who we’d seen in charge of the evacuation, which gives the impression she has at least some position of authority. And she wasn’t filled in on Holdo’s plan either.

Holdo’s flaw is assuming that, because she is the named authority - explicitly the last link in the chain of command - that all the people under her command should just fall in line. But the Resistance was, like the First Order, reverted into the Rebellion for this movie - in TFA, it was not a military service but a volunteer militia of people who were acting in service specifically of one person, Leia Organa. Not Holdo. So when the whole damn organization formed to follow one person, and that one person is taken out of commission, it NEEDS someone willing to extend trust to take charge. Poe was doing that by wanting to hear her out. Holdo was failing to do that by not even bothering.

Yoda’s appearance is undeserved - this is the same Jedi who, if he’d had his way, would have refused Luke’s training in Empire Strikes Back because he was “too old,” even though that was always the plan, to train the Skywalker child, and, as shown by the prequels, was the embodiment of the Jedi Order’s hubris back in the days of the Old Republic. If anyone deserved to have that moment with Luke, it was Anakin, because Anakin was the embodiment of where the Jedi teachings and values had failed - when your prophesized “Chosen One” ends up being at odds with almost all your expectations of the “model” Jedi, the Force is probably trying to tell you something. But no, Yoda’s the fan favorite, so Yoda appears and undermines his own message of “failure, the greatest teacher is.” Yoda’s failures had as much to do with the fall of the Jedi as anyone else’s, and when he had the chance to learn from it, he was going to pass it up.

By the end of the film, both the Resistance and the First Order are devastated. Kylo Ren is Supreme Leader of a handful of vessels with no real power base, while the Resistance fits semi-comfortably in Han Solo’s old beat up weed van. Meanwhile the New Republic is still in shambles. No one WON. All they got from victory was survival. By this point, they’re BOTH defeated, so... Where even was the story going to GO from here?

Also... That focus on the child slaves on Canto Bight at the end? Yeah, fine enough moment on its own, but... We already HAD child slaves established in this trilogy. Because Finn was taken as a child and conscripted, along with all the other stormtroopers of the First Order. So why didn’t THAT get any attention? Indeed, his infiltration of the First Order is no more than show, existing for like five minutes, rather than... y’know, trying to set up a stormtrooper rebellion, something that, by virtue of his character, should have been a running theme through the trilogy. Yet, see again, “Finn is a vestigial limb the movie can’t cut off” - we know from the DVD, he had A LOT of scenes cut and rewritten, at his character’s expense, after, again, being the leading man of the previous movie.

If this film had been a standalone film, like Rogue One or Solo, one of the Star Wars Stories films, rather than a main series film, I’d say it was a good Star Wars movie. But... As part two of a trilogy, part eight of a saga, it fails to connect to the rest of the story, and that, more than anything, is why Rise of Skywalker was what it was. If you didn’t care for Rise of Skywalker, look at what TLJ left for it in terms of connective narrative tissue, and where the story could go from there.

It might be a good film, but it was NOT a good Star Wars film. And I’m judging it as one.

#dg rants #the last jedi critical #sorry but i needed a rant on the subject #dg gets pissed #anti tlj

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whatsupwithher · 4 years

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Ok it's me here to rant about TROS again.

I think Disney having that R//ylo kiss shoved in at the end was a huge mistake. Thinking about it makes me wish I never liked Star Wars in the first place. Literally where is the respect for Rey's character? This is a grown man who kidnapped her, devled into her mind to take what ever he wanted, tried to kill her, tried to kill her friends. Yet it's suddenly okay because she turned Kylo Ren back to the light? It doesn't make any sense. Plot wise it just came from no where. You spend a whole trilogy building up this battle between the dark and the light (aka, a battle between Rey and Kylo Ren) only for them to kiss with no real romantic build up? Gross. It's like they tried to make a Han and Leia romance 2.0, which I've seen a lot of R//ylos try to compare the two, because of their age difference. But newsflash! Han Solo didn't kidnap Leia, nor did he torture her, or actively try to kill her!! So sit down with your comparisons because they are not the same!! That kiss just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I remember sitting there on opening night, seeing one disappointment on screen after another. Some things I could push aside, and other things I predicted would happen, but that just left me with a feeling that I had just, wasted so many years being so excited about how the series would end. I was so, so disapointed.

Not to mention there were so many opportunities missed with this film. Finn and Poe? They've had so much natural on screen chemistry. SO natural. I mean, how often do you hear an actor having fought so passionately to get a gay couple on screen? Oscar Isaac fought for that for years and the Disney gremlins said no. He's right, they are overlords. And also good for John Boyega going absolutely feral destorying R//ylo's left and right (nothing but respect for my kings). The introduction of Zorrii is Disney's way of holding their hands up to say "obviously Poe isn't gay look theres a GIrL!" (Which is similar to that Rose and Finn kiss at the end of TLJ, because like, when rewatching it I still see no hints of romance prior to that kiss.) Disney are cowards. Fuck Disney. If you didn't want a gay couple then why not use the next most natural-chemistry filled couple... Finnrey? You know, an actual loving relationship?

Leia's "sacrifice" felt so wasted and unnecessary. It hurts. Like why are we pretending Kylo Ren deserved to be redeemed? If he wanted out of the FO regime I'm sure after he killed Snoke he would've been happily able to bail, but no, he stuck around, played the role of SUPREME LEADER for A WHOLE YEAR. Does that sound like someone who wanted out? Seriously. It's a joke.

Finn should've has such a huge arc learning about his force-sensitivity but again, Disney are fucking cowards and needed to side line him.

Where the fuck were the knights the year before? Why don't they speak? Literally wtf?

HUX? That still hurts.

Rey's Palpatine connection? Gross. Creepy. You're telling me Palpatine cannonically fucks? Get OUT. I remember Daisy Ridley saying in an interview something like "why does everyone need to connect Rey to another character? She's just strong." And I felt that. Why couldn't she be Rey? Just Rey? Who's parents and lineage were nobodys? Who just happens to be powerful with the force? - That kid of the end of TLJ has no connections to any of the characters we've met and clearly has the force. Why couldn't Rey have been the same? Maddens me.

Also Daisy Ridley did NOT like R//ylo. So...

I remember getting goosebumps when I watched the first trailer for TROS, but looking back now, I dont know why. And god, my dad was obsessed with the original trilogy when he was a kid, he turned to me after we watched it and he genuinely looked sad. That movie has actually let him down, that story he watched so much as a child was literally ruined for him. He said that it wasn't even like a Star Wars movie. Disney seriously let down everyone with that movie. They let everyone down with the sequel trilogy. It's silly but my heart is heavy. They offered us something good with TFA, and it only went (rapidly) downhill from there.

Disney said oh you like the characters we gave you in TFA? How about we make Star Wars fans every where hate the franchise they grew up with :) and thats exactly what they did. Fuck Disney and fuck whatever the hell they did to the sequel trilogy.

#im mad af #tros #star wars #rey #finn #poe dameron #kylo ren #general hux #rose tico

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atamascolily · 4 years

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

Neener, neener, world-building is for losers. Not to mention plot, character development, and general coherence.

(Or, fifty ideas in a trench coat pretending to be one movie.)

Look, you get ONE fetch quest per film, and we've already exceeded the limit here, please stop... [does not stop]

Poe literally has to ask to kiss Zorii because she's wearing a mask, lol. I mean, I like to think he would anyway, but... just saying.

They literally slot the medallion into the designated coin slot and that's it, it's over so fast, lololololol.

Like, the FO lets them in because they have a medallion and then only sends two troopers to investigate because Something Is Clearly Up? LOLOLOLOLOLOL.

Okay, they're just going to straight up assault the Star Destroyer. 10/10 for style. Refuge in audacity and all that. Fine, whatever.

Finn ought to have some idea about the layout of the place, didn't the FO teach him that stuff when he was a stormtrooper? Or at least enough to have a hint. Or are they just going to wander around without a clue and magically find the right spot??

Oh, Rey's mastered the mind-trick now, good to know. (*Legally Blonde voice* "What, like it's hard?")

Poe's question if Rey does that to him and Finn is 100% spot on and he is RIGHT to ask that because the mind trick is SUPER INVASIVE and can be badly misused.Given how recalcitrant Poe’s been, I’m sure she’s been tempted.

Rey is so concerned about Chewie until she gets distracted by the dagger, sigh... [Han Solo voice] Convenient. [/Han Solo voice.]

Why do they need the dagger macguffin if they already have the coordinates? What a stupid thing to get Rey alone so she and Kylo can have a moment.

Kylo searching through Kijimi for Rey like he's got no fucking clue, lololol. So much for their "Force bond" here.

Does Finn feel, like, anything for the troopers he's shooting? I mean, obviously not in the heat of battle, but like, ever? Considering that his friend's death on Jakku was what snapped him out of the FO brainwashing in the first place... so he knows it's possible for the others to change. So... what a wasted opportunity here.

Literally, all of the troopers are patrolling either in pairs or alone, that is so dumb if there's actually an alert out on the ship for them.

Is Poe having PTSD flashbacks to the last time he got captured by the FO? Because I would, if I were in his shoes.

Rey picks up the dagger and has flashbacks again PSYCHOMETRY PSYCHOMETRY PSYCHOMETRY PSYCHOMETRY

Okay, the FUCK is going on with this fight scene. Where is she, really? Is she Force projecting? How can she do that when it killed Luke? How can BOTH of them be in two places at once? Ie, it's not that Rey is suddenly having an out-of-body experience and fighting Kylo on a spiritual plane in Kijimi - she's also fighting in Kylo's room, and even though I could see her body moving in time with her mind, is Kylo projecting himself into his room with HER, too? What is happening?

I feel like this scene would be so much more powerful if we established some parameters for HOW THIS POWER FUCKING WORKS so I know what the stakes are. Wouldn't it be interesting if this moved used life force, for instance, the same way that healing did? What are the restrictions/limitations? Why is none of this ever explained? It just happens... waaaaaahhhhhhh

I really love it when this is an open question in works that are thematically ABOUT "is it a dream? is it real? is it a mindfuck?" [see: Inception] but that's NOT THE POINT OF THIS FILM, this is a side issue, so it SHOULDN'T BE A MYSTERY, it should be actually intelligible to me what is going on even if I don't understand all the intricacies.

It does look cool, though. I'll grant them that much. The aesthetics of a night fight in the falling stone are ON POINT. Too bad the fight doesn't really use much of its scenery to any advantage. This could be literally anywhere for all that the characters draw on their surroundings.

"Wherever you are, you are hard to find." So smooth, Kylo.

Rey VERY CLEARLY SAYS "I don't want this!" in response to Kylo's "I've been in your head". Because consent is for LOSERs, am I right? [/sarcasm] ugghhhhhhh

"Your parents are no one...." but turns out they were actually someone! Never mind we never get their names or backstory anywhere! That might make them... interesting! Or even RELEVANT.

Okay, so stuff from Kijimi is literally spilling into the star destroyer and vice versa, is that actually happening or is that just a visual metaphor/dream sequence, I really need to know wtf is going on here.

Kylo using his knowledge of/from Palpatine to manipulate Rey is terrible but actually something he would do... and kinda clever. I'll grant him that much.

Ochi looks just like a twisted version of Maz, except taller... does that mean anything? probably not!

We literally have no connection to these two random new characters so their fate does not resonate as much as it SHOULD HAVE. Which one was Palpatine's kid? How did he HAVE kids in the first place? What was said kid's life like? Why did they grow up to run away and defy their dad? How did they meet the other partner? How did all this, you know, HAPPEN??

And why did Palpatine send an agent to kill them instead of killing/tortuing them himself, since they clearly had info he was interested in? THE FUCK.

I was hoping the Vader mask would finally be destroyed, but NOOOOOOOOOOO.

Lol how Kylo's like "I'm gonna only tell you the rest of the story in person" as if they weren't already fighting face to face in some weird dream-reality hybrid thingy. Kylo, you are so desperate and so so so so dumb.

LOL, Hux being all dramatic here. "I'm the spy!"

This just gets funnier when you remember how Poe trolled the SHIT out of him at the beginning of TLJ, so Poe has NO CLUE (because the writers didn't either until just now, natch), AND why Poe's reaction when Hux says he's gonna "do it himself" (ie, murder Poe) is so on point.

I approve of Rey looting Kylo's room before running off. Too bad she doesn't smash the Vader mask and be done with it. At least Chewie gets his crossbow back.

"I don't care if you win. I need Kylo Ren to lose." 10/10, excellent character motivation, and I approve. Hux is such a bastard and Kylo totally deserves this betrayal. (also: the Imperial philosophy in a nutshell.)

I'm not averse per se to Rey Palpatine, but this way of handling it is total bullshit and an asspull, sigh.

Oh, no, here comes the Force dyad nonsense. "We have no choice but to be together because we're SOULMATES! I'm stalking you because I LOVE YOU and it's DESTINY, Rey!" </sarcasm>

Oh, the destroyer is still in the atmosphere over Kijimi and not in space, I see. getting bespin feels here. This should have happened in the second movie not halfway through the third.

Yup, there's the "join me and rule the galaxy" offer right on cue.

Taking off your mask does not help here, Kylo. No one cares about your puppy dog eyes, you fucking stalker.

yeah, she would have jumped if the Falcon hadn't shown up right at the last minute, lol.

[Honestly, I would have had her jump and land smack on the back of the Falcon, but that may just be my twisted sense of humor talking.]

love kylo's dismay as she gets away. EXCELLENT LEAP. And Finn is wearing an oxygen mask, which is a detail which I <3!

Hux just dies with no drama, which is too bad, but also soooo typical of Imperial/FO management style. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Good thing your pettiness lives on!

(Pryde is clearly the Real Villain now that Hux is Actually Good, I see what you did there.)

I hate how Rey literally shuts Finn out here, when he is TRYING TO DO THE RIGHT THING AND REMIND HER SHE'S A GOOD PERSON and Rey is so confused by Kylo's constant gaslighting that she ignores him. Like, psychologically understandable (and sad) but I fucking hate it. Finn deserves so much better than this.

Palpatine talks in Kylo's head... how? why? Why does Palps have this kind of connection with Kylo when he had to make hologram calls to Vader the old-fashioned way? (I know they established at the beginning of the film that they had this relationship, but it's still odd and inexplicable. Like the whole thing that was supposed to make Mara Jade special was that she could hear his voice anywhere in the galaxy... and Kylo's just... got that... for no reason? Because Palps targeted him since he was a kid???

(Keep in mind Kylo was concieved RIGHT AFTER ENDOR, so I dunno what Palps was up to or how long it would take him to get a body or LITERALLY ANY WAY IN WHICH THIS WOULD MAKE LOGISTICAL SENSE.)

It's a moon of Endor, but a DIFFERENT moon of Endor, fine, okay, and we're going to ignore the whole "How did the Death Star ruins get here, anyway?" because that's a world-building problem of an entirely different order of magnitude and just roll with it.

I do believe Rey is mentally running the numbers on Death Star scrap/value of kyber crystals on the open market here, because old habits die hard. And that is such a gorgeous shot, with the cliffs and the churning sea and the ruins.

Oh, I see, the wayfinder was on the moon because it was in the Death Star with Palps and somehow... didn't explode or get sucked out into the vacuum of space. That's a leap, but okay, whatever, fine.

using a macguffin to find another macguffin, wow.

I don't literally don't understand how this dagger is supposed to work as a compass, but fine, whatever. now we will never see it again.

Jannah looks great, I love her character design, but unfortunately, this movie is going to spend very little time exploring the world she lives in because we have to rush onto the next thing, sigh. And apparently, they know about the Resistance! Okay. And they know Babu Frik... or Babu Frik knows them enough to call in some favors...? WHAT.

So it's too dangerous to travel on the water because the waves are so big... which means some killer tides! That is actually interesting, but Rey just overrides everyone and goes anyway (alone!!) so I don't even know why this comes up as an obstacle if it is instantly resolved. This film keeps doing that, and it is not as cute as the director thinks it is.

Finn and Jannah bond over being ex-FO, and this film should spend wayyyy more time on this than it does. THEY BOTH HAD "FEELINGS" ABOUT WHAT WAS RIGHT AND THEY OVERCAME THEIR BRAINWASHING -- Finn is talking about the feeling and calling it "the Force," this is great, AND MY HEART IS DISSOLVING IN A MILLION FEELS AND I JUST... WANT THIS TO FREAKIN' MATTER... why is Finn so sure the Force is real? Faith? Or because he's actually a Jedi, too? (You already know which one I believe here. MAKE HIM A JEDI YOU COWARDS.)

Rey just fucks off and steals Jannah's boat? Where... was it? How did she find it? What... how does that even make sense??

too bad they don't have a working ship, they could just FLY over the ocean instead of surmounting the waves for extra unnecessary drama, lol.

Please keep in mind that Rey grew up in a fucking desert. That she cannot (despite what TLJ might have told you) swim. Yet she is on a boat in an ocean alone. This is a terrible idea. (I'm not going to say it's OOC, because Rey would, in fact, totally do this--just emphasizing how bad an idea this is.)

Finn says, "You have no idea what she's fighting" to Poe... who does know, actually. Kylo tortured him at the beginning of TFA, just like he tried to do later in that film to Rey. Surely Finn should... know this?

If Finn and Poe are going to fight here, fine, this is just a stupid argument. Finn says he and Leia know what Rey is up against and Poe says, I'm not Leia, YES WE NOTICED POE.

Whyyyy is Poe the Team Skeptic here and such a grouch?? not cool.

"That's for damn sure." OH SNAP. And also, actual profanity in Star Wars? Whoa!

Of course Finn is going to go after her.

I will say this: the Death Star ruins look hella cool. also, a nice callback to the beginning of TFA where Rey is exploring the Star Destroyer ruins.

my goodness, the upper arm strength required. I love this scene. they should have made Palpatine's ghost haunting the ruins so we could have the final boss fight here - that would make so much more since than him fucking off to Exegol of all places.

(the ruins are totally my aesthetic, tho.)

And the Sith wayfinder.. is just floating in midair. In the ruins of the Death Star that shouldn't exist. In some sort of chamber with no security whatsoever. wowwwwww. Oh, okay, it's in some sort of suspended chamber thingy, but still.... security measures??

Hey, Rey touches it, and experiences a creepy vision--PSYCHOMETRY, ANYONE? A security measure? Oh, no, just a crazy Force vision... maybe? I don't know anymore. I don't know why.

The double-bladed quarterstaff lightsaber is super cool, though.

Rey fighting her evil self in the crumbling tech ruins is TOTALLY MY AESTHETIC YESSSSSSSSS.

since Rey gets a vision when she touches the wayfinder and is released when she lets go of it, I honestly wonder what the other wayfinder said to Kylo, if he experienced anything when he touched it.

speaking of which, there's kylo! ughhhhh.

Like, literally Rey could have stolen the Sith wayfinder from Kylo if he had left it in his room, and she blew up at least one of his TIE fighters that had it so... I don't even know if Kylo has one anymore. Maybe he doesn't need it? WHATEVER.

Rey is not amused. GIVE ME MY MACGUFFIN!

This is, for the record, the THIRD FIGHT between Kylo and Rey in this film, please just kill him already.

Kylo trying to gaslight Rey about not being a Jedi and how she's proven she's not and she'll disappoint Leia. HOW THE HELL DO YOU THINK LEIA FEELS ABOUT YOU, KYLO??? PROJECTING MUCH???

"Like I can't [go back to Leia]." Ooooohhhhhhh, forced teaming there, way to make your move by claiming to show vulnerability. YOU CHOSE THIS. YOU CHOSE THAT PATH. SHE SENT HAN TO BRING YOU HOME AND YOU MURDERED HIM BECAUSE SNOKE TOLD YOU TO SO YOU COULD LEVEL UP IN HIS STUPID DEATH CULT AND SNOKE TURNED OUT TO BE A PUPPET SO IT WAS ALL FOR NAUGHT, YOU ASSHOLE, and NOW YOU'RE TRYING GASLIGHT REY BY PROJECTING YOUR FAILURES ONTO HER.

And he shatters the macguffin rather than let her have it because he's that much of an asshole.

He doesn't pull out his lightsaber until several seconds in, just moves around because he genuinely doesn't want to hurt her even though he just provoked her into losing her temper to prove a point.

It's raining back on Jungle Planet for ATMOSPHERE and Leia is having a Force Vision of DOOOOOOOM, this was oh so clearly supposed to be for Han's death in TFA, but noooooooooooo we're using it here.

(Also, how is it not raining on the tech, I think there are roofs, but it's so hard to tell.)

Maz is so dramatic about this. "Leia knows what must be done, Artoo." Yes, Kylo is going down.

The aesthetics of the ocean ruins fight scene are 100% my jam, not gonna lie, it looks very cool.

So, once again, the Supreme Leader went off on his own... without backup... not even his own private biker gang.... AGAIN. I just.... can't even... what an idiot. What an absolute idiot.

Good thing Finn and Jannah are here, though I doubt the narrative will actually let them do much. I wish Finn and/or Jannah would just shoot Kylo here once Rey gives them an opening, but no, they're just going to stand there helpless.

I get why Rey pushes them away so Kylo won't use them against her as hostages, but STILL. THERE ARE THREE OF YOU AND ONE OF HIM. USE THAT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE, REY.

drenched unhappy Kylo Ren is excellent, yesssss.

This is the first time I've seen anyone use the Force to halt the blade of a lightsaber... interesting.

Rey is treating her lightsaber like it's one-half of a quarterstaff, I LOVE it, but it also begs the question why didn't she just make a double-bladed saber (with, say, a split kyber crystal from TLJ?) in the first place instead of using a weapon that clearly doesn't work for her as well????

Leia could have reached out to her son at any moment, but she chose not to because she needed to save her strength... but Palps can talk to Kylo across the galaxy and he's fine?? And Kylo and Rey can be in two different places and be just fine (yeah okay, Force dyad soulmates whatever whatever)??? THIS MAKES NO SENSE.

Rey stabbing Kylo with his own damn blade is POETIC CINEMA and also justice. FINALLY.

I think if there were any questions about whether Rey has killed someone, the answer in this scene is no. I can't tell if she's crying for Leia, for shock, for relief, for grief and regret over murdering Kylo, or what.

WHY DOES SHE USE HER LIFE FORCE TO HEAL HIM? WHY? WHY? WHY??????????? (give me a motivation, I dont know what her motivation is here, I dont know why she makes this sacrifice to HIM of all people and I feel like I really should know for this scene to have emotional impact but it doesn't).

LEIA SACRIFICED HERSELF FOR YOU, REY, AND YOU'RE JUST GOING THROW IT AWAY LIKE THIS???

Now, if this movie were actually serious about Kylo and Rey being a Force dyad or two halves of the same whole, then we, the audience, would realize along with Rey that she can't let Kylo die without hurting herself... which I'm not sure I would enjoy, but would at least be COHERENT and fit into the ESTABLISHED WORLDBUILDING even if said worldbuilding is dumb and personally offensive to me. I'M JUST SAYING THERE ARE OPTIONS HERE, YOU TOTALLY HAD OPTIONS THAT WOULD HAVE MADE NARRATIVE SENSE SO I DIDN’T HAVE TO DO IT FOR YOU ON THE SPOT.

"I did want to take your hand. Ben's hand." We know that. That was the whole ending of TLJ. Why is this such a shock now??? She already said that at the end of the last movie, so what have we accomplished since? Absolutely nothing has changed on that front, Kylo!!

Also, Kylo--she saved your life when she didn't have to, and you can't even say Thank you? YOU UNGRATEFUL ASSHOLE.

{there's one hour left in this movie WHATTTTTTTTTTTTT how is that even possible}

lol, she just straight up steals his ship.... which is just perched on top of the ruins nearby and hasn't been damaged at all by spray... and which should ALSO have the wayfinder macguffin in it.... so she's going to Exegol, right? The thing she's been wanting to do for the whole movie? The thing that they only have what, four hours left before the attack or whatever?

NOPE. She goes to Ahch-To. Because of course she does.

I hate this fucking movie so much.

#star wars #WHY DISNEY WHY #lily liveblogs

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